First Ledes: That Didn't Take Long

I'm sorry to say that with this assignment we had our first fatal fact errors, in which we offered inaccurate facts as defined by the syllabus.

And, in the interest of learning from each other this term, we will review each and every fatal so (hopefully) we can learn from the mistakes of others -- and avoid such mistakes ourselves, going forward.

In one case, we spelled the name of the city as East Lasing, when in fact it was East Lansing.

Yes, that's a fatal. And yes, the vast majority of fatals are something simple and basic that was overlooked. I know that's not what you intended to write, but that's what you did write. And it's wrong.

In a second case, we said the house fire was in Lansing, when in fact it was in East Lansing.

In another case, we wrote that a study looked at marriage distribution, when in fact it looked at marriage disruption. That, too, is a fatal, since distribution is not what the study considered.


(And this is an example of where spell check wouldn't have caught the mistake, because the unintended word is correctly spelled. This is why we need to use spell check as a supplement to -- but not a substitute for -- checking your story fact-by-fact with your own eyes, and checking against your notes -- or, in this case, against the information in your text.)

In yet another instance, we said a fire took place last night. In fact, it was Saturday night. We also said the fire took place in an apartment complex when the information we had said it occurred in a house.

In one case, we said Vernon Sindelair was the city treasurer, when in fact he was the county treasurer. In another case, we said he was the U.S. treasurer, apparently in belief he was the country's treasurer.

We get this idea that fatals are a HUGE error, but the reality is overwhelmingly fatals are simple mistakes. Like forgetting a word. That's why we urge such stringent fact-checking.

So please, be vigilant. After you finish writing be sure to double-check every name and age and title and date and, yes, city spellings.

Now, with this assignment you were dinged 1.0 for any one component of the assignment with a fatal. But in future assignments, one fatal means a 1.0 on the entire assignment, period.

Seriously, it's that serious. Like I've said, journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. Let's make sure we build good fact-checking habits so this is a rare circumstance.