But sometimes, it is easier than you'd think. For example, I edited the Wikipedia entry for San Francisco today, and by altering one sentence, I changed the spirit of an entire paragraph under the Geography and Climate section.
Originally, a Wiki-author stated, "Entire neighborhoods of the city such as the Marina and Hunters Point were created and sit on man made landfill (made up of mud, sand, and rubble from past earthquakes) and other reclamation projects over the San Francisco Bay when flatland became scarce. Such land is extremely unstable during earthquakes; the resultant liquefaction during earthquakes causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake."
You see that line I bolded: "Such land is extremely unstable during earthquakes." That is true, but only in extreme cases. In fact, sizeable earthquakes (>M3) occur quite regularly and hundreds of smaller earthquakes (~M2) go by without notice. During these typical events, these possibly-liquefiable artificial fills behave fine. There is no doubt that severe liquefaction is a near certainty during strong shaking resulting from a large earthquake. A lot of damage would take place, and lives may be lost. But the spirit of the statement is tainted, and isn't "engineered."
So I changed that line to: "Such land tends to be unstable during earthquakes." Simple and accurate. The statements are basically equivalent, and mine makes those who live there (and any possible developers) more content, and the opinion stressed is backed by engineering integrity and ethics. In fact, the previous wording was largely incorrect from an engineering perspective, in my opinion.
