Almost all writers rely on research for facts and information. Even fiction writers and memoirists, whose work is either made up from imagination or based on personal experience, will turn to research to fill in holes and answer questions.

We use encyclopedias, reference books, and articles from scholarly journals, and we rely on historical facts and data collected by researchers so we can write truthfully and honestly. We also use Google, Wikipedia, and a host of other material found online. All this research is supposed to strengthen our work and lead to better, more credible writing.

We absorb this information and then spit it back out in the words we write. Then people come along and read our words. Maybe they go off and repeat what they’ve read. Maybe they rehash our material in a blog post of their own. Maybe they use it in an academic paper, or perhaps it inspires a poem or a short story. The information itself is constantly making the rounds, getting processed, filtered, and regurgitated. How are we to sift through it all to find reliable facts? How do we tell the truth from the lies?

We are currently bombarded with information. It’s more accessible than ever before in history. Millions of facts can be yours with a few keystrokes and the click of a button. Yet, oddly, the spread of misinformation seems more rampant than ever. It’s becoming less common for sources to be cited and more likely that the so-called facts you read online are just somebody’s beliefs or suspicions.

I find the spread of misinformation grossly irresponsible (it’s one of my pet peeves). There are so many ways to get the facts straight, there is really no excuse for it. I’m not talking about misunderstandings or unintentional mistakes—I’m talking about either knowingly repeating things that are untrue or willfully failing to get facts straight before reporting or repeating them.

But what does this have to do with you as a writer? How does responsible research (or lack thereof) reflect on a writer’s credibility, and how does solid research and the use of legitimate citations lead to better writing?