Murder/Robbery/Squirrels/Missing: Fatalspalooza '13

Every semester, we have a practice story of two where it seems like the whole class goes off the fatal rail and plunges straight into It Sucks To Be Us Canyon. For my summer class, it was the "robbery" exercise, where the summer class had eight fatals. We only had three. But this term's "murder" assignment had six.

Gulp. That's a lot for just one exercise, even for JRN 200. Not the most ever in one assignment, but more than usual. And not a rate I'm comfortable with. Especially when "squirrels" added two more, and "missing" two more on top of that.

Sadly but typically, many of the fataled exercised were well-written and organized, and many would have scored very well if not for the fatals.

But in journalism, it's not about writing; it's about getting it right. I'm afraid it's a lesson many of us are being reminded of the hard way today.  

Let's look at what happened and why, and how we can avoid such fatals going forward: 


PROBLEM: A misspelling in a quote, that changed the word kicking to kicked. Any change from what was literally said inside of a quotation is a fatal.

SOLUTION: Be sure after writing to go back and double-check the quotes you actually used in your story for accuracy.

PROBLEM: Extra word left in a quote; "I fell on on the floor," instead of the correct " I fell on the floor," with on only used once.

SOLUTION: Same as the above.

PROBLEM: Another misspelling in a quote, that changed the word hand to head.

SOLUTION: Do not simply rely on spell check in proofing work, as spell check will not catch a misspelling that creates a correctly-spelled but unintended word.

PROBLEM: Yes, another misspelling in a quote; "No I lost my job," when "Now I lost my job" was the correct quote. 

SOLUTION: Same deal.

PROBLEM: Spelling the same name two different ways, as Blohm and Bloom.

SOLUTION: Make sure you double-check spellings of names throughout the story, to make sure the spellings are consistent. If you find that the same name is spelled two different ways, you know at least one is wrong and that you need to double-check it.

Plus, be sure that you don't blindly agree to make all changes suggested by spell check, which would ask you to change Blohm (a name considered a misspelled word in spell check) to Bloom (which is a verb that spell check recognizes as a correctly-spelled word).

PROBLEM: Spelling a name incorrectly. Like, writing North Pointe Inn -- with an e at the end of Pointe -- instead of the correct North Point Inn, with no e in Point.

And, Romone Hernandez (with too many o's), when Ramone Hernandez (with an a) was the right way.

SOLUTION:  Again, double-check the spellings of names. Before writing, make sure that the spelling you plan to use is the correct spelling. After writing, be make sure that you actually did use the correct spelling. Check against your notes.

PROBLEM: Again, spelling a name incorrectly. Like Olive Brookes, when the first name should have been Oliver, with an r at the end.

SOLUTION: Again, double-check spellings of names after you finish writing, to make sure what you wrote was what you intended to write, and that it matches your notes. 

And again, don't trust spell check alone.

First, spell check will NOT catch a misspelling that creates an unintended but correctly-spelled word, like when you write Olive (which is correctly-spelled for the food item) instead of Oliver (which was the name you intended to write). Spell check doesn't know you intended to write Oliver instead of Olive, so it would find no problem there.

Second, be sure that you don't blindly agree to make all changes suggested by spell check, which would ask you to change Oliver (a name considered a misspelled word in spell check) to Olive (which is a noun that spell check recognizes as a correctly-spelled word).

Spell check is a complement to -- but not a substitute for -- checking a story with your own eyeballs, fact by fact.

PROBLEM: Spelling a formal title incorrectly. Like, saying United State Justice Department -- with no s at the end of State -- when you meant United States Justice Department, with States ending in s.

SOLUTION: A combination of all of the above. Double-check spellings, before and after.Make sure what you spelled lines up with your notes, or a formal title as found in AP Style and/or Google. Don't trust spell check to catch misspelled words that create correctly-spelled but unintended words.

PROBLEM: Citing facts incorrectly, like saying the suspect was carrying a gun when he was carrying a knife.

SOLUTION:  Make sure you double-check basic facts, like who was carrying what, and when they did what they did, ect. After writing, double-check names, dates, times, addresses, weapons, other items, things, ect. to make sure what you wrote was (a) what you intended to write and (b) accurate, compared to the information you have in hand.

PROBLEM: Accurately recalling information. Lotsa fatals here. Like spelling the robber's last name as Weiss, when the book said it was Wiess AND in assigning the story I confirmed that, in fact, the odd spelling of Wiess WAS correct, and that the more common spelling of Weiss was not.

Plus, spelling the professor's last name as Brooks, when in assigning the story I had you find the inconsistent spelling of Brooks/Brookes and then confirmed to you both in voice and in writing that Brookes with an e was the correct spelling.

And, saying a police officer was with the Lansing Police Department, when in fact the information I gave you orally and in writing was the East Lansing Police Department.

Also, saying three-fourths of missing people in the city of East Lansing were juveniles, when in fact the information I gave you orally and in writing that data set represented the state of Michigan. 

SOLUTION: As reporters, we need to make sure we get down information correctly. Imagine instead of being your teacher I was the source for your story, and instead of it being homework this was a real story you were writing. We have to make sure that what we take down is accurate. We have t be carefully paying attention, and if we missed something or if we aren't clear about something, we need to ask questions to make sure we have it down right.

This is critical to being a good journalist. We need to take down information correctly, or else everything we do from that point on will be wrong. We need to clear our heads, pay close attention, and take careful notes.


******

Learning to write isn't journalism. Learning to organize information isn't all of journalism. Putting in a system of checking facts before, during and after writing and organizing information is what makes this kind of writing and organizing known as journalism.

The good news is, many of my previous classes had fatals binges, especially early in the semester when we're still reconciling balancing speed and accuracy. The fact is, most people in previous classes get two or three or four fatals in practice stories over the course of the semester, and still end up with a solid grade.

The bad news is, some of us have already used up our three or so fatals. We have to buckle up and start avoiding 'em here and there.

Still, while this is discouraging, let's not get discouraged. The whole point of these exercises -- and getting fatals, too -- is to learn by doing, reviewing what was done, learning what could be done better, and then applying those lessons the next time.

And that's what we're going to do here, by redoubling our efforts to carefully fact-check everything we write.

In a previous blog post, I offered a number of cut-and-pasted handouts on good fact-checking habits. I'm not in the business of handing things out just to be busy; those handouts included many tips we should be integrating into our routines, so we can become relatively fatal-free. You can link directly to those handouts right here.

Let's not let these bad times go to waste. Rather, let's use these mistakes as an opportunity to identify where we tend to trip up and how we can do better the next time, and as motivation to follow through with rigorous fact-checking from here on out. 

FYI, for those of you keeping score at home, 12 of 18 people have at least one fatal (and most have more than that). Again, that's pretty typical. It's been rare that anyone has made it through a semester without at least a couple of fatals.

For the six of you who have yet to fatal, that means I'm coming for you.