... included ...
>>> Incorrectly identifying the victim as Roger Lo, when it was James Roger Lo, or just James Lo.
>>> Incorrectly identifying the victim's mother as Joan Roger Lo, when it was just Joan Lo. The victim's father was Roger Lo.
>>> Incorrectly naming the property owner as Wagner Development Corp. or Magnor Development Corp., when it was Wagnor Development Corp.
>>> Spelling the plaintiffs' last name two different ways, as Dowdell and Dowell.
>>> Incorrectly citing numbers, like that 54.7 American households had Internet service, when we meant 54.7 percent of American households had Internet service.
And that the survey polled 500,000 households, when in fact it was 50,000. Yep, one zero makes all the difference.
The lesson? Same as usual. Make sure we correctly cite spellings of names and the accuracy of numbers before we start writing, and after we finish make sure what we wrote checks out with what we intended to write. Go through your work and make sure you used the same names the same way, and look for inconsistencies.
One more time: journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right.
For those of you keeping count, 15 of 18 people in this class have now fact-fataled. Membership cards for the Fatals Club coming soon.
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