First Ledes: Use The Right Words!

Let's look at this lede:

      The Centers of Disease Control concluded from a study that the length of an average American wedding is dependent on factors other than just people growing apart after time.

We have a problems here: we listed the name of the organization as the Center of Disease Control. That is not the name; according to what we were given, it is the Centers (not Center) for (not of) Disease Control.

In journalism, we must get names precisely correct. No wiggle room. As noted in the syllabus:

Fact errors: Inaccurate information, misspelling a proper name, a misquotation or an error that changes the meaning of a story automatically drops a grade to a maximum of 1.0 (e.g., President “Barack Obamma” or “Department of Transport”).      

So, this is the first "fatal" of the semester (and THREE of us fataled in this way on this exercise!). I'm not pointing this out to be a jerk; rather, it's to remind each and every one of us that journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. That means we need to use names and facts precisely. That means we have to be sure to double-check our work to ensure that we used the right terms and facts, the right way.

In this assignment, each component was its own grade. So, instead of dropping the overall grade to a 1.0, it dropped it to a 3.0, with three components getting full credit. 

It wasn't our only fatal. In another exercise, we reported the TB outbreak was at Detroit High School; in fact, it was Kennedy High School in Detroit. Saying a Detroit high school (generically, with "a" in front) would also have been correct. 

In an earlier blog post, we talked about using precise language, and using language correctly. This is an example of why; so we can convey the correct meaning, exactly as we intended and without risk of confusion.
A bigger problem we had was that FIVE of us didn't do this assignment. The fastest way to struggle in this class is to miss assignments, since the final grade is based on a compilation of scores. And a low score is better than no score at all.