How articles are made
CurioSpark is written and edited by one person — Said. There is no big editorial team behind the scenes. Here is how a single article actually gets researched, written, and published.
The principle
Better to publish fewer articles that are correct than many that sound impressive. Each piece on this site is built around a question Said is genuinely curious about, and every factual claim has to be traceable to a source the reader can check.
The workflow
Pick a question worth answering
A topic only gets a draft if Said can write down a one-sentence question that an article should actually answer. “Does X work?” or “Why does Y happen?” — not “Top 10 things about Z.” If the question is too vague, the article is skipped.
Read the original research
Every article starts with reading primary sources — peer-reviewed studies, original reports, statements from the institutions involved. Secondary blog summaries do not count as sources. If a claim only exists on listicle sites and not in the underlying research, it is removed.
First draft (AI may help, hand-rewriting always does)
AI tools sometimes help with structure or a rough first pass — same way most working writers use them today. But no AI draft is published as-is. Said rewrites every paragraph by hand, cuts filler, fixes the parts that read generic, and makes sure the article actually says something specific instead of sounding vaguely smart.
Fact-check, claim by claim
Before publishing, every statistic, study reference, and named finding is re-verified against the original source. Numbers that cannot be backed up are cut. Studies that turned out to be retracted or weak are removed. See the Fact-Checking Policy for the specific checks.
Read it back once more
Final pass: read the article straight through, out loud where possible. If a section sounds like generic content-mill writing, it gets rewritten. If a paragraph repeats a point already made above, it gets cut.
Publish, then keep updating
Once live, articles are not abandoned. When new research changes the picture — or a reader reports an error — the article is updated, with a dated note explaining what changed.
What this site will not publish
- Articles whose claims cannot be tied to a real source
- “Studies show…” without naming the study
- Sensational framing that overstates what the research actually found
- Filler paragraphs that repeat the same point with different words
- Sponsored content presented as editorial
How to help
If you spot a factual error, a missing source, or a claim that seems off, email hello@curiospark.org with the article URL and what you found. Corrections show up on the article with the date and a short note about what changed.