Writing Clearly at Work

Who created and checked this page

Correction history

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 30 July 2026 · corrected by Selen Ikbal Uslu

   Rewrote both the research and case-study sections after independent verification found only 3 of 13 checked claims (Orwell, Theranos/Carreyrou, Challenger/Tufte) were fully accurate, with the remaining 10 ranging from mischaracterized real work to entirely fabricated studies and citations.

   Before

   Article mischaracterized Deborah Tannen's real 1994 book (actually about gendered conversational style, not written-vs-spoken prosodic cues) and fabricated a specific empirical origin story for Barbara Minto's real Pyramid Principle (her actual insight concerned junior consultants' argument structure, not an executive reading-behavior study). It fabricated specific statistics (48%, 2 million) for Josh Bernoff's real survey and misdated Rudolf Flesch's real book (1951, not 1952) while inventing client-response claims. It fabricated an entirely nonexistent SEC staff attorney ('Norm Brand') and a '40 percent' reading-time statistic. It fabricated an entire Boris Groysberg study of '500 executives' that does not exist in his real published work. It misapplied a citation to 'Richard Nordquist' (a grammar reference writer, not an original researcher) with a fabricated Journal of Business Communication finding. It fabricated a specific finding attributed to Laszlo Bock's real book Work Rules! that does not appear in the actual text. It fabricated sample size and swapped findings for a real 2016 NACE survey (real: 201 employers, verbal communication ranked highest; article stated: 400 employers, written communication ranked highest). And it fabricated an entire Nitin Nohria Harvard Business Review article and a '40 hours of senior editor time' statistic with no findable source.

   After

   Both sections were rewritten to keep only the real, verifiable content: Tannen, Minto, Bernoff, and Flesch's real work described accurately without the fabricated statistics and mischaracterizations; Orwell's fully accurate 1946 essay and quotes preserved; Amazon's real six-page memo culture, the real Plain Language federal initiative, P&G's real one-page memo standard, and the fully-accurate Theranos and Challenger/Tufte case studies preserved; the entirely fabricated Groysberg, Nordquist, Google/Bock, NACE, and HBS/Nohria claims were removed rather than corrected, given that no real underlying finding could be located for any of them.

   Why: This was one of the most heavily fabricated articles in this batch outside the two 100%-fabrication-rate cases - only 3 of 13 independently-checked claims were fully accurate, with fabrication spanning both mischaracterization of real sources and wholesale invention of studies, names, and statistics.

   View the full record →

Full contribution timeline

1. Correction 30 July 2026

   Selen Ikbal Uslu: Rewrote both the research and case-study sections after independent verification found only 3 of 13 checked claims (Orwell, Theranos/Carreyrou, Challenger/Tufte) were fully accurate, with the remaining 10 ranging from mischaracterized real work to entirely fabricated studies and citations.

   Proof record →