Robbery: More Fatals Than Just The Robber

The good news is, we had fewer people fatal this time around. The bad news is, we still had more people fatal (five) than I'm comfortable with at this point. Worse, many of the people who did fatal had multiple fatals.

More problematic, virtually all the fatals regarded issues we have talked about repeatedly this semester: meeting deadlines, double-checking the most basic facts like names, etc.

It's okay that we make mistakes once, as long as we learn from them and start following solutions so they don't happen again.  That's not happening universally right now.

When we go over the blog, it is CRITICAL that you become aware of and remember the pitfalls we're trying to avoid, and that you follow the suggestions offered with every fatal on how to avoid such problems.

Then, we have to follow such procedures EACH AND EVERY TIME. No short-cuts, ever.

To make sure the "little things" are being checked, for your first out-of-class story I plan to double the number of random fact checks I usually do. So please, do your due diligence, and carefully review your work for accuracy!

Each and every one of you can do this. You have the ability. The question is, are you going to make this enough of a priority to do the proofreading in detail? 

One more time: avoiding fatals has nothing to do with ability or talent; only vigilance.

***** 


PROBLEM: We had a time fatal: I received one story 17 seconds after deadline. Time fatals are an automatic 0.0 on the assignment.

SOLUTION: Don't cut deadlines so close! Set an artificial deadline well before the actual one, not only to give yourself enough time to fact-check your work, but also to have extra time to deal with technical problems that could crop up out of the blue.

Either way, we CANNOT miss deadlines, ever. If we're writing a script for the 11 o'clock news, submitting your script 17 seconds after the show started won't be tolerated.

*****
PROBLEM: We spelled the dead robber's last name as Weiss, even though the text said Wiess, and Wiess was confirmed in the white board instructions given to you.


SOLUTION: Make sure you know what you're writing about before you start writing. Go over your interview notes (or, in this case, the text and assignment instructions) before you do anything else to make sure you correctly understand the facts.

*****

PROBLEM: We spelled the clerk's middle name as Earnest, when in fact it was Ernest.

SOLUTION: Double-check with your own eyes every noun (persons, places and things) to make sure what you spelled was correct and what you intended to spell. Spell check would not have caught this, because the misspelling of Ernest created a correctly-spelled but unintended word in earnest (which means, showing deep sincerity or seriousness).

Furthermore, if we simply blindly clicked on making all the changes recommended by spell check, then spell check may have caused this error. That's because spell check generally doesn't recognize names (like Ernest) as being correctly-spelled words, and it could very well try to change it to a correctly-spelled non-name, like earnest.

Yet another reason why spell check is a supplement to, but not a substitute for, checking your story noun-by-noun, name-by-name and fact-by-fact, using your own eyeballs.

*****

PROBLEM: We spelled the district attorney's last name as Hernandaz, when in fact it was Hernandez. In another case, we spelled the clerk's middle name as Ernesy, when in fact it was Ernest.

SOLUTION: Same as the above.

*****

PROBLEM: Two people spelled the last name of the clerk as both Layous  and Layoux, when in fact it is the latter. One of us also added in Layouz.

SOLUTION: Double-check the spellings of all names, titles, addresses, etc. before writing to make sure you have the information correct in your head; double-check all that after you finish writing to make sure what you wrote down was correct; and when doing the latter look for inconsistencies that reveal an error: for example, spelling one last name two different ways. One obviously has to be wrong.

It's also worth noting that the S, X and Z keys are adjacent to each other on a keyboard. Which is why we need to double-check; sometimes, our fingers can slip.

***** 

PROBLEM: In quoting the clerk we wrote that "carrying a gun is against my company policy," when in fact the word "my" was never said. 

Another one of us quoted the clerk saying, "$30 than cash," when in fact it was "$30 in cash" (italics mine). 

One more of us wrote "the company rules" when in fact what was said was "the company's rules."

SOLUTION: After writing, we need to review all quotes used to make sure what is being quoted is PRECISELY what the person said.

Plus, spell check would have never caught the second error because the unintended word is spelled correctly. One more time: spell check is a supplement to, but not a substitute for, checking your story noun-by-noun, name-by-name, fact-by-fact and quote-by-quote, using your own eyeballs.

*****

For those keeping score at home, all but two people in this class -- 16 of 18 -- are members of the No Fun To Fatal Club. The average fataler has fataled on roughly two assignments to date, which is a pretty typical number.


So if you've had just one or two fatals,  you should be fine. If you've had three or more, we really need to rededicate ourselves to fact-checking.