While I work on grading your first ledes assignment, here's another assignment to keep you busy: in RFTM please complete exercise 1 (News Judgment) on p. 25-26. Please put your answers in a Word document with the proper assignment heading (name, date, etc.) as noted in an earlier blog post and attach it to an email to omars@msu.edu. Your deadline will be 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Plus, we need to start reviewing our AP style books. Please review your AP Stylebooks from chapters A through G by the end of the week. I know it's like skimming through a phone book, but I want you to start getting familiar with the types of terms and issues addressed by AP style, so you can get a sense of what you should be looking up when doing written assignments.
We'll have more to do tomorrow. Until then, good luck!
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Friday, May 27, 2016
JRN 200: Your Friday 5/27 Homework
Yes, you have holiday weekend homework. Sorry, folks. but in a summer class we have to move fast.
Below are summaries of the latest readings in RFTM, plus a writing exercise that will be due by 9 a.m. Tuesday via email. Please follow the directions exactly as listed.
A few things about writing exercises:
1. They should be timed. That's the way we do it when it's an in-person class. It's hard for me to enforce it in an online class, but we are working on your ability to write on deadline, so I ask that you adhere to recommended time frames in which you are expected to read background material, write your writing and proofread your work. For today's assignment you should complete your work within 1 hour, 15 minutes of starting.
2. We strictly enforce deadlines. News is a deadline business, so when we say due no later than 9 a.m. Tuesday I mean it's received by me no later than exactly 9 a.m. Monday. Not 9:01 on Monday. Not that you sent it at 9 a.m. Monday. Missing a deadline -- even by just one second -- will result in an automatic 0.0 on all assignments.
Missing deadlines -- even by seconds -- is unacceptable in journalism. Is there a journalistic value reason for that? You bet. An editor can work with a piece o' crap story, no matter how bad it is. They can fix it and clean it up sufficiently as long as they have it. But they can't work with nothing. Nor can you fill up a newspaper page or a TV script with nothing.
Think about it: have you ever watched the 11 o'clock news, when they've started the show by saying, "Our scripts aren't ready yet; come back in 10 minutes"? Me neither. That's because it simply isn't allowed to happen. And those who may be tardy with the occasional deadline are soon asked to find something else to do for a living.
It's a lesson I'd rather have you appreciate the severity of in this class, than on your first internship or job. Here, it's a shitty grade on one assignment. Out there, it's a derailment of your professional career.
It's your responsibility to make sure you don't forget an assignment, as it is in the real world. It's your responsibility that you're not even one second late on your deadline, as it is in the real world. And as in the real world, it's your responsibility to make sure your assignment is routed to the right place, which in this case is omars@msu.edu.
Them's the breaks, folks. It sucks, but let's at least learn from these errors so we don't repeat 'em.
3. We strictly enforce accuracy. Journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. Getting things right is key to credibility, and there's no such thing as a small error. (After all, if you can't get the little things right, why would readers believe we're correct with the big stuff?)
To motivate you to make fact-checking routines a standard part of what you do, in this class on any assignment any fact error (which we call fatals) will automatically result in a 1.0 on the assignment.
Harsh? Kinda. But it's to get you to embrace good fact-checking habits as part of your routines. And it's not as harsh as what you may face professionally. When I was still a professional journalist, one newspaper I worked at had this rule: in any one year a first "fatal" would result in a verbal reprimand; a second a written reprimand; a third meant I needed to write up an action plan to avoid fatals; a fourth fatal meant an unpaid suspension; and a fifth fatal meant I could be fired.
And that was on writing between 200 and 250 stories a year!
So, the margin of error is tiny. And the problem is, in a natural state speed and accuracy do not go well together. Yet that's what we have to reconcile in doing journalism. We have to get used to writing fast AND correctly. I'd rather have you learn a harsh lesson (and improve from there) when the consequence is a bad grade on one assignment, rather than getting fired from your job.
Please take the fact-checking habits we've blogged about earlier and work them into your routines. And try to dedicate as much time to fact-checking as you do writing.
For example, let's say you have one hour to do an assignment. Ideally, I'd like you to spend the first 15 minutes going over the story information and making sure you understand what you are about to write about. Then, spend the next 30 minutes writing. After that, spend the last 15 minutes proofreading your work.
That way, in the end you spend one minute doing quality control for every minute spent writing. And if it means your story seems short, so be it. I'd rather have you write short than wrong.
This will be the last update prior to Tuesday. There will be no new posts Saturday or Sunday, and Monday is the Memorial Day holiday. Just be sure to finish your weekend homework by the prescribed deadline, and check back in with the blog Tuesday morning.
Otherwise, have a nice weekend, folks!
Below are summaries of the latest readings in RFTM, plus a writing exercise that will be due by 9 a.m. Tuesday via email. Please follow the directions exactly as listed.
A few things about writing exercises:
1. They should be timed. That's the way we do it when it's an in-person class. It's hard for me to enforce it in an online class, but we are working on your ability to write on deadline, so I ask that you adhere to recommended time frames in which you are expected to read background material, write your writing and proofread your work. For today's assignment you should complete your work within 1 hour, 15 minutes of starting.
2. We strictly enforce deadlines. News is a deadline business, so when we say due no later than 9 a.m. Tuesday I mean it's received by me no later than exactly 9 a.m. Monday. Not 9:01 on Monday. Not that you sent it at 9 a.m. Monday. Missing a deadline -- even by just one second -- will result in an automatic 0.0 on all assignments.
Missing deadlines -- even by seconds -- is unacceptable in journalism. Is there a journalistic value reason for that? You bet. An editor can work with a piece o' crap story, no matter how bad it is. They can fix it and clean it up sufficiently as long as they have it. But they can't work with nothing. Nor can you fill up a newspaper page or a TV script with nothing.
Think about it: have you ever watched the 11 o'clock news, when they've started the show by saying, "Our scripts aren't ready yet; come back in 10 minutes"? Me neither. That's because it simply isn't allowed to happen. And those who may be tardy with the occasional deadline are soon asked to find something else to do for a living.
It's a lesson I'd rather have you appreciate the severity of in this class, than on your first internship or job. Here, it's a shitty grade on one assignment. Out there, it's a derailment of your professional career.
It's your responsibility to make sure you don't forget an assignment, as it is in the real world. It's your responsibility that you're not even one second late on your deadline, as it is in the real world. And as in the real world, it's your responsibility to make sure your assignment is routed to the right place, which in this case is omars@msu.edu.
Them's the breaks, folks. It sucks, but let's at least learn from these errors so we don't repeat 'em.
3. We strictly enforce accuracy. Journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. Getting things right is key to credibility, and there's no such thing as a small error. (After all, if you can't get the little things right, why would readers believe we're correct with the big stuff?)
To motivate you to make fact-checking routines a standard part of what you do, in this class on any assignment any fact error (which we call fatals) will automatically result in a 1.0 on the assignment.
Harsh? Kinda. But it's to get you to embrace good fact-checking habits as part of your routines. And it's not as harsh as what you may face professionally. When I was still a professional journalist, one newspaper I worked at had this rule: in any one year a first "fatal" would result in a verbal reprimand; a second a written reprimand; a third meant I needed to write up an action plan to avoid fatals; a fourth fatal meant an unpaid suspension; and a fifth fatal meant I could be fired.
And that was on writing between 200 and 250 stories a year!
So, the margin of error is tiny. And the problem is, in a natural state speed and accuracy do not go well together. Yet that's what we have to reconcile in doing journalism. We have to get used to writing fast AND correctly. I'd rather have you learn a harsh lesson (and improve from there) when the consequence is a bad grade on one assignment, rather than getting fired from your job.
Please take the fact-checking habits we've blogged about earlier and work them into your routines. And try to dedicate as much time to fact-checking as you do writing.
For example, let's say you have one hour to do an assignment. Ideally, I'd like you to spend the first 15 minutes going over the story information and making sure you understand what you are about to write about. Then, spend the next 30 minutes writing. After that, spend the last 15 minutes proofreading your work.
That way, in the end you spend one minute doing quality control for every minute spent writing. And if it means your story seems short, so be it. I'd rather have you write short than wrong.
This will be the last update prior to Tuesday. There will be no new posts Saturday or Sunday, and Monday is the Memorial Day holiday. Just be sure to finish your weekend homework by the prescribed deadline, and check back in with the blog Tuesday morning.
Otherwise, have a nice weekend, folks!
JRN 200: Basic Ledes Practice Story Assignment
For this first writing exercise, you won't need your book. Instead, use the information provided below.
After reviewing the blog posts below, what I would like you to do is write four ledes -- one for each item, each of which should be no longer than 32 words -- using a Word document, with each lede based on the sets of information provided at the end of this post, numbers 1 through 4. Use the readings and blog posts as your guides in doing this.
For each, please do a basic summary lede. DO NOT do alternative ledes for this exercise; you will get a chance to play with that in the very near future, but for right now I want to see you doing the most basic form of a lede.
I would like you be be sure to double-space your work (for easier grading on my part), and in the upper left-hand corner of your paper I want you to list the following:
Your name (e.g., Ronald McDonald)
The assignment due date (in this case, it's May 31, 2016)
The assignment page number (this does not apply to this assignment; it will for future work)
The assignment slug
What a slug is, is a one or two-word working title for a news story. In this case, the slug is FIRST LEDES. So, please use FIRST LEDES both for your slug AND for the subject of the email to which you will attached your Word document and send to me at omars@msu.edu.
Let me be clear: it's omars@msu.edu -- with an "s" at the end of "omar." This is important because there IS an omar@msu.edu (with no "s"), and that's not me. YOU are responsible for making sure you're sending this to the right address.
Your deadline will be 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 31. That's a.m., as in the morning. That gives you A LOT of time to do this assignment, which for in-person classes is usually done in-class in about 75 minutes, tops, with no prior warning. If you really need to get it knocked out before the holiday weekend, just do it today (this assignment is designed to be done within a normal class period during the school year, so we're talking about a couple of hours, max).
I will not be grading this based on conformance to AP Style (since we just started readings on that), but I will make a note of AP Style usage in evaluating your work.
I, however, WILL be grading you based on accuracy (any fact error automatically gets a 1.0 final grade) and meeting your deadline (anything received by me at or after exactly 9 a.m. Tuesday will get a 0.0 final grade, though I will still evaluate your work so you can at least figure out what you did well and what you can do better next time).
These rules are in place -- and will be strictly enforced -- not because I'm a monster, but to start building in you an absolute respect for journalistic mores. In journalism we must always be accurate, as people count on us for correct information and otherwise wouldn't rely on us. So we must make sure we carefully double-check our work. And in journalism we must always meet our deadlines, as they won't delay the 11 o'clock news by a minute or two to get your script finished.
Plus, I will be strictly holding you to the 32-word limit. You will be severely docked for going over. In journalism, we have to make decisions every day on what information is of the highest and best use to our audiences. In doing that, we have to find and focus on what is most important, interesting, relevant and useful. This is the sort of decision-making I will better see from you by essentially forcing you to decide how to best use an allotment of no more than 32 words. You don't have to make it 32 words -- if you can do an adequate lede that is less than that, that's great -- just don't exceed that limit.
So, please make sure that you're giving yourself enough time not just to write your story, but to thoroughly read the information before you start writing (so you are sure you understand the facts behind what you're about to write); and review the story after you finish writing (to make sure you wrote what you intended, and didn't make any typos and such.
Ideally, for every minute spent writing, you want a minute devoted to pre-checking and rechecking. So, if you have one hour to write, ideally you'd want to spend the first 15 minutes going over your gathered facts; then 30 minutes writing your story; then 15 minutes reviewing your work.
Before you start this assignments, please read the chapter lecture summaries, which highlight key points from your latst reading assignments in the Reporting For The Media textbook.
After reviewing the blog posts below, what I would like you to do is write four ledes -- one for each item, each of which should be no longer than 32 words -- using a Word document, with each lede based on the sets of information provided at the end of this post, numbers 1 through 4. Use the readings and blog posts as your guides in doing this.
For each, please do a basic summary lede. DO NOT do alternative ledes for this exercise; you will get a chance to play with that in the very near future, but for right now I want to see you doing the most basic form of a lede.
I would like you be be sure to double-space your work (for easier grading on my part), and in the upper left-hand corner of your paper I want you to list the following:
Your name (e.g., Ronald McDonald)
The assignment due date (in this case, it's May 31, 2016)
The assignment page number (this does not apply to this assignment; it will for future work)
The assignment slug
What a slug is, is a one or two-word working title for a news story. In this case, the slug is FIRST LEDES. So, please use FIRST LEDES both for your slug AND for the subject of the email to which you will attached your Word document and send to me at omars@msu.edu.
Let me be clear: it's omars@msu.edu -- with an "s" at the end of "omar." This is important because there IS an omar@msu.edu (with no "s"), and that's not me. YOU are responsible for making sure you're sending this to the right address.
Your deadline will be 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 31. That's a.m., as in the morning. That gives you A LOT of time to do this assignment, which for in-person classes is usually done in-class in about 75 minutes, tops, with no prior warning. If you really need to get it knocked out before the holiday weekend, just do it today (this assignment is designed to be done within a normal class period during the school year, so we're talking about a couple of hours, max).
I will not be grading this based on conformance to AP Style (since we just started readings on that), but I will make a note of AP Style usage in evaluating your work.
I, however, WILL be grading you based on accuracy (any fact error automatically gets a 1.0 final grade) and meeting your deadline (anything received by me at or after exactly 9 a.m. Tuesday will get a 0.0 final grade, though I will still evaluate your work so you can at least figure out what you did well and what you can do better next time).
These rules are in place -- and will be strictly enforced -- not because I'm a monster, but to start building in you an absolute respect for journalistic mores. In journalism we must always be accurate, as people count on us for correct information and otherwise wouldn't rely on us. So we must make sure we carefully double-check our work. And in journalism we must always meet our deadlines, as they won't delay the 11 o'clock news by a minute or two to get your script finished.
Plus, I will be strictly holding you to the 32-word limit. You will be severely docked for going over. In journalism, we have to make decisions every day on what information is of the highest and best use to our audiences. In doing that, we have to find and focus on what is most important, interesting, relevant and useful. This is the sort of decision-making I will better see from you by essentially forcing you to decide how to best use an allotment of no more than 32 words. You don't have to make it 32 words -- if you can do an adequate lede that is less than that, that's great -- just don't exceed that limit.
So, please make sure that you're giving yourself enough time not just to write your story, but to thoroughly read the information before you start writing (so you are sure you understand the facts behind what you're about to write); and review the story after you finish writing (to make sure you wrote what you intended, and didn't make any typos and such.
Ideally, for every minute spent writing, you want a minute devoted to pre-checking and rechecking. So, if you have one hour to write, ideally you'd want to spend the first 15 minutes going over your gathered facts; then 30 minutes writing your story; then 15 minutes reviewing your work.
Before you start this assignments, please read the chapter lecture summaries, which highlight key points from your latst reading assignments in the Reporting For The Media textbook.
Also, included after those posts are a few posts regarding tips to ensuring accuracy. Please take a look and start working those habits into your routines.
For assignments during the week, I will be available to answer questions during regular business hours, but for this assignment I will NOT be. Please do your best and be sure to meet your deadline. It's better to turn in a so-so story than none at all. In a real-world situation, an editor can fix up a weak story. But an editor can't fix nothing.
Plus, I am fully aware this is your first assignment. It will be a tiny part of your final grade. Mastering it won't guarantee a 4.0 final grade; we have a lot of work yet to do. And tanking it won't ruin your hopes for an Ivy League grad school. It's just a start, so let's have at it. Good luck to all!
For assignments during the week, I will be available to answer questions during regular business hours, but for this assignment I will NOT be. Please do your best and be sure to meet your deadline. It's better to turn in a so-so story than none at all. In a real-world situation, an editor can fix up a weak story. But an editor can't fix nothing.
Plus, I am fully aware this is your first assignment. It will be a tiny part of your final grade. Mastering it won't guarantee a 4.0 final grade; we have a lot of work yet to do. And tanking it won't ruin your hopes for an Ivy League grad school. It's just a start, so let's have at it. Good luck to all!
1. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control conducted a major study of American marriages and announced their results at a press conference Friday. Of couples that marry, the researchers found that 43% break up within fifteen years, according to their study of 50,000 women. It helps if women are wealthy, religious, college-educated, and at least 20 years old when they marry. They are less likely to divorce. The CDC found that half of U.S. women had lived with a partner by age 30. And 70% of those couples that lived together for at least five years eventually walked down the aisle. But their marriages were most likely to break up. After 10 years 40% of the couples that had lived together before marriage had broken up, compared with 31% of those couples that did not live together. That’s because people who choose to live together tend to be younger and less religious and have other traits that put them at a greater risk for divorce, the CDC concluded.
2. There’s a new program to help East Lansing's teachers. They aren’t paid much. Many can’t afford a down payment for a house. So local school officials on Saturday unveiled a new program that will offer mortgages with below-market interest rates to teachers and administrators in public schools. Its designed for first-time buyers and would offer eligible educators up to 10,000 dollars to help cover down payments and closing costs. They will not have to repay any of that amount provided they both continue to teach and remain in the home for a minimum of the next five consecutive years. Helping teachers buy or rent is becoming a popular incentive across the nation as teacher shortages and attrition continue to plague schools. Cash for the down payments will come from Federal funds already used to help low to moderate income residents buy homes. Program rules have been tweaked so teachers qualify, said school supt. Gary Hubard. There are limits on applicants income and on a homes purchase price, mostly depending on exactly where a home is located.
3. Kalamazoo's Fire Chief announced Sunday that the fire department is ending a tradition at least a hundred years old. It’s the tradition of sliding down a pole to get to a fire engine. The city, he explained, is phasing poles out as it builds new one-story stations to replace older multistory firehouses. Going down the pole too fast and hitting a concrete floor can cause injuries and was therefore never a good tradition, he said. He explained that fire department records show over the past 20 years at least 12 firemen suffered injuries, especially sprained or broken ankles or legs. Still, crews improved their response time to fires by bypassing staircases from their upstairs living quarters, by cutting holes in the floors of firehouses, and by installing and using the brass or steel poles. The last multi-story firehouse with a pole is slated for demolition sometime early next year.
4. There’s a deadly problem at Kennedy High School in Detroit. Two more students tested positive for tuberculosis last week, indicating they likely picked up the germ from a student with an active case of TB, city health officials announced Monday. The two students are not yet ill and can not pass the infection on to anyone else but will be given antibiotics to make sure they never develop TB. The two were among 170 persons tested at the school last week. The tests were necessary because health officials determined that one student has active TB, which is contagious. The Health Department last week tested every student and staff member who was in a class or rode a school bus with the ill student. The ill student is no longer in school, having dropped out for the year. The health officials said there is little danger to the schools nearly 3000 other students. TB is spread when an ill person coughs, but only after prolonged exposure and in poorly ventilated areas. A high school campus isn’t likely to be a place for TB transmission. Those two who tested positive will be given a chest x-ray and medication to be sure they don’t develop active TB.
RFTM Chapter 2: Selecting And Reporting The News
There are several characteristics of news to consider. Those include timeliness; that it is current information, fresh angles and new details. (You can't spell "news" without "new.")
Impact: stories that affect, involve or interest large groups of audience members. (For example, a tuition hike at MSU is a big deal to The State News, because so many of the newspaper's readers are MSU students. A tuition hike at the U. of M. means much less to The State News, because the U. of M. isn't its audience.) Reporters must evaluate the impact and/or importance of news, in deciding what to report and highlight.
Prominence: the happenings of people or institutions of great power, importance or influence. (For example, if I get into a car accident it's not a big deal, since I'm nobody special. If the President gets into a car accident, it's a big deal.)
Proximity: events close to home (a murder in East Lansing is bigger news to The State News than a murder in Detroit, because The State News's primary audience is in and around East Lansing) and even events happening to people or in places similar to those of your audience (for example, a college campus shooting in California WOULD be a bigger deal to The State News, since the news involves the same demographic as its primary audience; that being college students).
Singularity: or deviations from the usual, such as unexpected or unusual events, drama or charge, odd twists in otherwise-mundane stories (for example, a car accident caused by a cat driving a car is much more newsworthy than a typical car accident, because cats usually don't drive cars). Journalists must always be on the lookout for this, if singularity is what makes this story different than others.
Conflict or controversy: between entities or people (e.g., a school planning a tuition hike unpopular with students), or between people and societal issues (e.g., college grads dealing with a lousy job market).
There are also various types of news, including hard news, defined as stories on serious, timely and important topics (e.g., tuition hikes, public safety).
Soft news: features or human-interest stories (summer travel options, a look at the life of an interesting person).
Breaking news: news that's happening at the moment (car crashes, house fires).
Is there such a thing as "good news" and "bad news?" Journalistically, no. This usually refers to a source's view of a story, based on whether he or she received positive or negative attention.
(That has no bearing on the work we do. Our duty is to our audience, regardless of whether it makes a source look good or bad or indifferent and regardless of your opinions or even your audience's opinions. Rely on facts -- and fairness to the facts, and your audience's accurate understanding of teh facts -- to guide the tone of your report.)
The importance of accuracy is all-encompassing. Journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. That includes an accuracy in facts. Reporters must understand a topic before writing about it. If reporters don't understand something, how can they explain it to readers? Make sure you do thorough reporting and ask any and all questions -- even so-called "stupid" ones -- so that you get what you're writing about.
Accurate writing requires specifics instead of generalities. Be sure to double-check and even triple-check all information. Ask for spellings (especially of names; the first time you assume somone spells their name as Jill, you'll later learn it was Jyl or something else) and specifics. Most fact errors are caused by carelessness or laziness.
There are many obstacles to accuracy, primarily that speed (in meeting deadlines) and accuracy (in ensuring our work is correct) don't naturally go together. But that's the challenge of journalism; to make those two get along as well as possible.
Also, there's always the risk of misinformation, by a source either providing incorrect information or lying outright. That's why it's important to talk to MULTIPLE sources, and to seek evidence for statements given to you.
(There's an old saying in journalism that, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." What does that mean? That if your mom says she loves you, don't just take her word for it; try to verify it using facts and statements. For example, you can cite historical documents that indicate a fondness for you, like birthday cards from your mom and notes she wrote you saying how much she loves you. You can interview subjects who know your mom, like coworkers who say she always brags about how great you are. You can cite historical events, like that she never missed any of your activities as a kid. Then, you share all that with your audience. THAT'S journalism. Again, it's not about writing; it's about getting it right.)
Impact: stories that affect, involve or interest large groups of audience members. (For example, a tuition hike at MSU is a big deal to The State News, because so many of the newspaper's readers are MSU students. A tuition hike at the U. of M. means much less to The State News, because the U. of M. isn't its audience.) Reporters must evaluate the impact and/or importance of news, in deciding what to report and highlight.
Prominence: the happenings of people or institutions of great power, importance or influence. (For example, if I get into a car accident it's not a big deal, since I'm nobody special. If the President gets into a car accident, it's a big deal.)
Proximity: events close to home (a murder in East Lansing is bigger news to The State News than a murder in Detroit, because The State News's primary audience is in and around East Lansing) and even events happening to people or in places similar to those of your audience (for example, a college campus shooting in California WOULD be a bigger deal to The State News, since the news involves the same demographic as its primary audience; that being college students).
Singularity: or deviations from the usual, such as unexpected or unusual events, drama or charge, odd twists in otherwise-mundane stories (for example, a car accident caused by a cat driving a car is much more newsworthy than a typical car accident, because cats usually don't drive cars). Journalists must always be on the lookout for this, if singularity is what makes this story different than others.
Conflict or controversy: between entities or people (e.g., a school planning a tuition hike unpopular with students), or between people and societal issues (e.g., college grads dealing with a lousy job market).
There are also various types of news, including hard news, defined as stories on serious, timely and important topics (e.g., tuition hikes, public safety).
Soft news: features or human-interest stories (summer travel options, a look at the life of an interesting person).
Breaking news: news that's happening at the moment (car crashes, house fires).
Is there such a thing as "good news" and "bad news?" Journalistically, no. This usually refers to a source's view of a story, based on whether he or she received positive or negative attention.
(That has no bearing on the work we do. Our duty is to our audience, regardless of whether it makes a source look good or bad or indifferent and regardless of your opinions or even your audience's opinions. Rely on facts -- and fairness to the facts, and your audience's accurate understanding of teh facts -- to guide the tone of your report.)
The importance of accuracy is all-encompassing. Journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. That includes an accuracy in facts. Reporters must understand a topic before writing about it. If reporters don't understand something, how can they explain it to readers? Make sure you do thorough reporting and ask any and all questions -- even so-called "stupid" ones -- so that you get what you're writing about.
Accurate writing requires specifics instead of generalities. Be sure to double-check and even triple-check all information. Ask for spellings (especially of names; the first time you assume somone spells their name as Jill, you'll later learn it was Jyl or something else) and specifics. Most fact errors are caused by carelessness or laziness.
There are many obstacles to accuracy, primarily that speed (in meeting deadlines) and accuracy (in ensuring our work is correct) don't naturally go together. But that's the challenge of journalism; to make those two get along as well as possible.
Also, there's always the risk of misinformation, by a source either providing incorrect information or lying outright. That's why it's important to talk to MULTIPLE sources, and to seek evidence for statements given to you.
(There's an old saying in journalism that, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." What does that mean? That if your mom says she loves you, don't just take her word for it; try to verify it using facts and statements. For example, you can cite historical documents that indicate a fondness for you, like birthday cards from your mom and notes she wrote you saying how much she loves you. You can interview subjects who know your mom, like coworkers who say she always brags about how great you are. You can cite historical events, like that she never missed any of your activities as a kid. Then, you share all that with your audience. THAT'S journalism. Again, it's not about writing; it's about getting it right.)
RFTM Chapter 7: Basic Ledes
There are various types of ledes (which is what we call the start of a news story).
The most basic type of lede is called the summary lede. It's a lede that answers at least one or two of the most important questions among the five W's and one H of journalism (who, what, when, where, why and how). Such ledes get straight to the main point of the story. These are the easiest ledes to write, and a default you can always rely upon with any type of story. And this will be the kind of lede I want us to concentrate on as we start this semester.
In deciding what to put in your lede, you need to ask yourself several questions, including:
What is the most important information?
What's the story's central point?
What was said or done about this topic?
What happened, or what action was taken?
What are the most recent developments?
How did things conclude?
Where are things now?
Which facts are most likely to affect or interest readers?
Which facts are most unusual?
What are the facts that a reader absolutely needs to know about this story, if they read just the lede and nothing else?
The structure of a lede should be a single sentence, if possible. So you really do have to drill down to just the essential part of the story in your lede. You can't overload it.
There are several points to consider in writing effective ledes, the first of which is: be concise. Make it easy for the public to read and understand. Avoid being wordy, repetitious, and choppy. Eliminate or delay the use of unnecessary or less necessary background information until later paragraphs.
(The proper length of a lede widely varies between news organization and even between different stories. For the purposes of this class, a lede should be no more than 32 words. That means before writing, you need to make decisions on what information is most important for the lede, and leave out other info until later in the story.)
Be specific. Use interesting details. Offer details that allow readers to visualize events. Avoid cliches.
Use strong, active verbs in the ways we discussed earlier.
Emphasize the magnitude of the story, e.g., note the number of people affected or possibly affected by something (e.g., More than 300 students were hospitalized this week after drinking rotten beer, police said), or the dollar cost or percentage increase or decrease of something (e.g., Tuition will increase 1,000 percent for incoming freshman this fall at Michigan State University), or note any telling statistical measures of what happened (e.g., inches of snowfall in a blizzard, how many feet high was a tsunami wave, the number of cars involved in an accident, ect.).
Stress the unusual, such as deviations from the norm (e.g., A 2-year-old boy who can't yet speak piloted the space shuttle during its launch into space today).
Localize and update. Emphasize your community's role in happenings, whether regional or global (e.g., An MSU student was among three people who stole a hippo from Potter Park Zoo this morning). Emphasize the latest happening or development in a story (e.g., Five more students appeared in court today for their roles in last week's Cedar Fest riot).
Strive for simplicity. Don't overload a lede with too much info. Again,let's keep it to 32 words or less.
Begin with the news, when possible. What I mean is, try to avoid beginning a lede with attribution (the source of information). For example, it's better to lede with, The dog died, police said as opposed to, Police said the dog died, so we can put what happened (the dog died) ahead of who said it (police). The news most often is what happened, not necessarily who said it. But if the source is big enough, then that rule is relaxed (The president said he would okay an invasion of Canada is okay to lede with the source, since the source is making the news by flexing his or her power).
Emphasize the news. Do not necessarily follow chronological order in telling a story. Rarely are the first events in a sequence the most newsworthy. Decide which facts are the most important, interesting, relevant or useful, and write a lede emphasizing those facts, regardless of what occurred first.
(For example, what's most important at a football game; how things started, or how things finished? It's the latter, of course. That's why we lede with who won or lost. Same thing with a city council meeting; the news is what they ended up deciding. That's the material for your lede. Likewise, what's more important: the item the city council first voted on, or the item that most interests or affects residents? It's the latter, so you should lede with the latter.)
Avoid agenda ledes, which are ledes that place too much emphasis on the time and place at which a story occurred. News generally is what happened, why and how moreso than to whom and when.
(For example, in a football story the most important news is who won or lost, and not that a football game was played at a certain time and date. And with a city council story, the most important information is what the council decided, and not that a city council meeting was taking place at a certain time or date.)
Avoid label ledes, which are when you mention a topic but fail to reveal what was said or done. Ledes should report the substance of what happened, and not just the topic. (It's not news that the football team played a game or that the city council had a meeting; it's who won or lost the football game and what the city council ended up deciding to do at the meeting.)
Avoid exaggeration. If a story is weak, it's weak. You're better off doing additional reporting to see if you can find an angle that's more interesting within your topic, than hyping something that just isn't worth the hype.
Avoid misleading readers. Never sensationalize, belittle or mislead. A lede should accurately set the tone for the rest of the story.
Remember your readers. Ledes must be clear, useful, interesting and relevant to be of use to your audience. That's who you're writing to inform. Again, journalism isn't about personal artistic impression; it's about representing the facts in a useful way for your audience to understand.
Rewrite ledes. Writing in and of itself can help focus writing ideas and insights. Don't be afraid to tinker repeatedly with ledes.
(Quite often in my professional career, I would be stuck on writing a lede. What I would often do is start writing the rest of the story, without a lede or with a BS one I knew I'd change. The process of writing the story and laying out facts would often help me crystallize in my mind what the main point of the story was, and once I could articulate a main point, that became my lede.)
Don't be afraid to break some of these rules! Use your imagination. Try to find something different, as long as it is factual and contextually on par with the facts of your story. If it works and best serves the readers in an accurate and contextual way, then it's okay.
The most basic type of lede is called the summary lede. It's a lede that answers at least one or two of the most important questions among the five W's and one H of journalism (who, what, when, where, why and how). Such ledes get straight to the main point of the story. These are the easiest ledes to write, and a default you can always rely upon with any type of story. And this will be the kind of lede I want us to concentrate on as we start this semester.
In deciding what to put in your lede, you need to ask yourself several questions, including:
What is the most important information?
What's the story's central point?
What was said or done about this topic?
What happened, or what action was taken?
What are the most recent developments?
How did things conclude?
Where are things now?
Which facts are most likely to affect or interest readers?
Which facts are most unusual?
What are the facts that a reader absolutely needs to know about this story, if they read just the lede and nothing else?
The structure of a lede should be a single sentence, if possible. So you really do have to drill down to just the essential part of the story in your lede. You can't overload it.
There are several points to consider in writing effective ledes, the first of which is: be concise. Make it easy for the public to read and understand. Avoid being wordy, repetitious, and choppy. Eliminate or delay the use of unnecessary or less necessary background information until later paragraphs.
(The proper length of a lede widely varies between news organization and even between different stories. For the purposes of this class, a lede should be no more than 32 words. That means before writing, you need to make decisions on what information is most important for the lede, and leave out other info until later in the story.)
Be specific. Use interesting details. Offer details that allow readers to visualize events. Avoid cliches.
Use strong, active verbs in the ways we discussed earlier.
Emphasize the magnitude of the story, e.g., note the number of people affected or possibly affected by something (e.g., More than 300 students were hospitalized this week after drinking rotten beer, police said), or the dollar cost or percentage increase or decrease of something (e.g., Tuition will increase 1,000 percent for incoming freshman this fall at Michigan State University), or note any telling statistical measures of what happened (e.g., inches of snowfall in a blizzard, how many feet high was a tsunami wave, the number of cars involved in an accident, ect.).
Stress the unusual, such as deviations from the norm (e.g., A 2-year-old boy who can't yet speak piloted the space shuttle during its launch into space today).
Localize and update. Emphasize your community's role in happenings, whether regional or global (e.g., An MSU student was among three people who stole a hippo from Potter Park Zoo this morning). Emphasize the latest happening or development in a story (e.g., Five more students appeared in court today for their roles in last week's Cedar Fest riot).
Strive for simplicity. Don't overload a lede with too much info. Again,let's keep it to 32 words or less.
Begin with the news, when possible. What I mean is, try to avoid beginning a lede with attribution (the source of information). For example, it's better to lede with, The dog died, police said as opposed to, Police said the dog died, so we can put what happened (the dog died) ahead of who said it (police). The news most often is what happened, not necessarily who said it. But if the source is big enough, then that rule is relaxed (The president said he would okay an invasion of Canada is okay to lede with the source, since the source is making the news by flexing his or her power).
Emphasize the news. Do not necessarily follow chronological order in telling a story. Rarely are the first events in a sequence the most newsworthy. Decide which facts are the most important, interesting, relevant or useful, and write a lede emphasizing those facts, regardless of what occurred first.
(For example, what's most important at a football game; how things started, or how things finished? It's the latter, of course. That's why we lede with who won or lost. Same thing with a city council meeting; the news is what they ended up deciding. That's the material for your lede. Likewise, what's more important: the item the city council first voted on, or the item that most interests or affects residents? It's the latter, so you should lede with the latter.)
Avoid agenda ledes, which are ledes that place too much emphasis on the time and place at which a story occurred. News generally is what happened, why and how moreso than to whom and when.
(For example, in a football story the most important news is who won or lost, and not that a football game was played at a certain time and date. And with a city council story, the most important information is what the council decided, and not that a city council meeting was taking place at a certain time or date.)
Avoid label ledes, which are when you mention a topic but fail to reveal what was said or done. Ledes should report the substance of what happened, and not just the topic. (It's not news that the football team played a game or that the city council had a meeting; it's who won or lost the football game and what the city council ended up deciding to do at the meeting.)
Avoid exaggeration. If a story is weak, it's weak. You're better off doing additional reporting to see if you can find an angle that's more interesting within your topic, than hyping something that just isn't worth the hype.
Avoid misleading readers. Never sensationalize, belittle or mislead. A lede should accurately set the tone for the rest of the story.
Remember your readers. Ledes must be clear, useful, interesting and relevant to be of use to your audience. That's who you're writing to inform. Again, journalism isn't about personal artistic impression; it's about representing the facts in a useful way for your audience to understand.
Rewrite ledes. Writing in and of itself can help focus writing ideas and insights. Don't be afraid to tinker repeatedly with ledes.
(Quite often in my professional career, I would be stuck on writing a lede. What I would often do is start writing the rest of the story, without a lede or with a BS one I knew I'd change. The process of writing the story and laying out facts would often help me crystallize in my mind what the main point of the story was, and once I could articulate a main point, that became my lede.)
Don't be afraid to break some of these rules! Use your imagination. Try to find something different, as long as it is factual and contextually on par with the facts of your story. If it works and best serves the readers in an accurate and contextual way, then it's okay.
RFTM Chapter 8: Alternative Ledes
What is an alternative lede? It's a lede that is more creative, contextual and usually much more fun to write. It conveys an interesting idea or the essence of a story in a unique way. It requires intelligence, inventiveness and imagination instead of formula writing (although our approaches still require a devotion to the facts, as opposed to our feelings and opinions).
There are various types of alternative ledes, which we will look at with all examples being from stories related to the Cedar Fest riots that occasionally take place in East Lansing.Those types of ledes include:
Buried or delayed ledes. These begin with an interesting example or anecdote that sets a story's theme. Then it's followed by a nut graf, which in the case of alternate ledes summarizes the main point that the anecdote is illustrating, and provides a transition to the body of the story. (Nut grafs are a bit different with summary ledes; we'll get into that a bit later.)
Here's an example of a type of buried or delayed lede, which in this case is called a descriptive lede, which offers descriptive details that paint a picture before gradually moving into the action:
Joe Smith was enjoying a beautiful spring night with 4,000 of his classmates, drinking and partying and having a good ol' time.
The air was warm, the beer was cold, and most people were being cool about it all.Then, some people started go get a bit rowdy. A stop sign was torn from the ground. A pair of couches went up in flames.
And that's when the tear gas cannisters began to fly.
Nearly 2,000 students were arrested, and another 2,000 hospitalized after the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot that required National Guard intervention before being brought under control.
In this example, the lede actually is an anecdote that extends over the first three paragraphs, or grafs. The fourt graf is the nut graf (which, like with most alternative ledes, sounds very much like a summary lede).
The goal here is to emphasize context and humanize the story, before we get into the nitty-gritty.
Question ledes, appropriate when the question is brief, simple, specific and provocative, such as:
Got tear gas?
Nearly 4,000 MSU students were able to answer "yes" to that question after the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot. leading National Guard troops to fire tear gas cannisters to disperse the crowd.
The first graf is your lede, and the second is your nut graf. This is also an example of a suspenseful lede, where we create suspense or arouse reader curiosity or raise a question in their mind, offering an explanation in the nut graf.
Shockers are ledes with a twist; a startling lede that immediately captures the attention of readers, such as in this alternative lede/nut graf combo:
Drinking is a rite of passage at many colleges. At MSU, that rite comes with tear gas.
For the sixth straight year, the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot, with National Guard troops once again dispersing the crowd with tear gas cannisters.
Ironic ledes are similar to a shocker, but offer an ironic contrast, like in this lede/nut graf combo:
Joe Smith went to Cedar Fest for the beer. The tear gas was an extra.
The latter came courtesy of National Guard troops, who were dispatched to break up the party after it degenerated into a riot Saturday night.
Words used in usual ways can provide the basis for an alternative lede, like in this lede/nut graf combo:
When Joe Smith headed to Cedar Fest, he figured it would be a gas. It was.
But not in the way he imagined. Tear gas was used by National Guard troops to disperse party-goers after the annual celebration degenerated into a riot Saturday night.
These are just a few possibilities. But there are as many possible ways to do an alternative lede as you can imagine. As long as the method tells the story in the best ways to emphasize what makes a story interesting, relevant and/or useful, and as long as it's based and true to the context and facts of the situation, then it's okay.
Silly stories should be silly. Sad stories should be said. Be true to the facts.
There are various types of alternative ledes, which we will look at with all examples being from stories related to the Cedar Fest riots that occasionally take place in East Lansing.Those types of ledes include:
Buried or delayed ledes. These begin with an interesting example or anecdote that sets a story's theme. Then it's followed by a nut graf, which in the case of alternate ledes summarizes the main point that the anecdote is illustrating, and provides a transition to the body of the story. (Nut grafs are a bit different with summary ledes; we'll get into that a bit later.)
Here's an example of a type of buried or delayed lede, which in this case is called a descriptive lede, which offers descriptive details that paint a picture before gradually moving into the action:
Joe Smith was enjoying a beautiful spring night with 4,000 of his classmates, drinking and partying and having a good ol' time.
The air was warm, the beer was cold, and most people were being cool about it all.Then, some people started go get a bit rowdy. A stop sign was torn from the ground. A pair of couches went up in flames.
And that's when the tear gas cannisters began to fly.
Nearly 2,000 students were arrested, and another 2,000 hospitalized after the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot that required National Guard intervention before being brought under control.
In this example, the lede actually is an anecdote that extends over the first three paragraphs, or grafs. The fourt graf is the nut graf (which, like with most alternative ledes, sounds very much like a summary lede).
The goal here is to emphasize context and humanize the story, before we get into the nitty-gritty.
Question ledes, appropriate when the question is brief, simple, specific and provocative, such as:
Got tear gas?
Nearly 4,000 MSU students were able to answer "yes" to that question after the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot. leading National Guard troops to fire tear gas cannisters to disperse the crowd.
The first graf is your lede, and the second is your nut graf. This is also an example of a suspenseful lede, where we create suspense or arouse reader curiosity or raise a question in their mind, offering an explanation in the nut graf.
Shockers are ledes with a twist; a startling lede that immediately captures the attention of readers, such as in this alternative lede/nut graf combo:
Drinking is a rite of passage at many colleges. At MSU, that rite comes with tear gas.
For the sixth straight year, the annual Cedar Fest party degenerated into a riot, with National Guard troops once again dispersing the crowd with tear gas cannisters.
Ironic ledes are similar to a shocker, but offer an ironic contrast, like in this lede/nut graf combo:
Joe Smith went to Cedar Fest for the beer. The tear gas was an extra.
The latter came courtesy of National Guard troops, who were dispatched to break up the party after it degenerated into a riot Saturday night.
Words used in usual ways can provide the basis for an alternative lede, like in this lede/nut graf combo:
When Joe Smith headed to Cedar Fest, he figured it would be a gas. It was.
But not in the way he imagined. Tear gas was used by National Guard troops to disperse party-goers after the annual celebration degenerated into a riot Saturday night.
These are just a few possibilities. But there are as many possible ways to do an alternative lede as you can imagine. As long as the method tells the story in the best ways to emphasize what makes a story interesting, relevant and/or useful, and as long as it's based and true to the context and facts of the situation, then it's okay.
Silly stories should be silly. Sad stories should be said. Be true to the facts.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Job Shadow Assignment: Get Started!
The job shadow assignment in JRN 200 is unique from our other work in that it is not intended for publication.
It is intended to help students explore career options.
To do this, choose a person who is doing a job that you might like to do and plan to spend half a day with them as they work. This is one of the last things due, but set it up early so you are not in a tight spot late in the semester. It might take several tries to set this up. Some people, we have found, are not responsive.
Your are to shadow a journalism professional, not another student. We do not shadow people at The State News, WKAR or places where we have interned.
The person may work in any form of news media. They can work in any city.
THE QUESTIONS
Learn largely by observing what they do, and use your own questions. Here are a few you can use:
* What is a really fun day on this job?
* What happens on a terrible day?
* What are the best parts of the job?
* What are the worst parts?
* How is the job changing -- and how fast?
* How did you get this job?
* What are its basic requirements?
* What do you like/dislike about it?
* Is job security an issue? How do you cope with that.
THE REPORT
You will not write a news article about this, as it is not a news story. You will be writing a 300-word report. About two thirds should describe what you saw and heard. About a third should describe how well this job -- or parts of it -- would fit you. Include any lessons you learned about your career path or getting a job someday.
The deadline for your job shadow proposal is no later than 9 a.m. Friday, June 24 to omars@msu.edu. The deadline for your job shadow report is no later than 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12 to the same.
The deadline for your job shadow proposal is no later than 9 a.m. Friday, June 24 to omars@msu.edu. The deadline for your job shadow report is no later than 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12 to the same.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
JRN 200: Your Wednesday 5/25 Homework
In addition to the new blog post on proofreading below, for your next JRN 200 assignment, you will be asked to read Chapters 2, 7 and 8 (p. 12-26 and 133-180) in Reporting For The Media, 11th edition by Friday morning.
If anyone has any other questions or concerns whatsoever, please contact me by email, phone or in-person, and we'll get right on things to help set you straight.
That's it for today. See (?) you soon, folks.
If anyone has any other questions or concerns whatsoever, please contact me by email, phone or in-person, and we'll get right on things to help set you straight.
That's it for today. See (?) you soon, folks.
Proofreading: Three Checklists
Before we start doing stories, I think it's prudent to introduce everyone to these three fact-checking and proofreading lists I offer in my JRN 200 classes.
Instructions
After completing your story, use the down arrow on your keyboard to highlightand then complete each of these checks.
I. Facts
Check these first three items while your story is on the screen:
1. Run spell-check, review suggestions and correct any actual errors.
2. Click hyperlinks.
3. Call phone numbers.
Use a printout of the story for the remaining checks:
4. Put a ruler under each line as you read the text. Underline every fact, and then double-check each one, including:
a) Names and titles of people, places and companies - Also, does each second reference (Jones) have a first reference (Mary Jones)?
b) Numbers and calculations - Do the numbers add up? Is it millions or billions? Are the percentages correct?
c) Dates and ages - Watch references to “next month/last month” when the month is changing.
d) Quotes - Are quotes accurate and properly attributed? Have you fully captured what each person meant?
e) Superlatives - What’s your source that something is the biggest, oldest, etc.?
II. Grammar
5. Check each sentence for correct use of:
a) Subject-verb agreement - Also, are you consistent in your use of either the present or the past tense to tell the story?
b) Pronoun-noun agreement.
c) Plurals and possessives.
d) Punctuation.
III. Spelling
6. Read the story backwards, checking the spelling of each word. Use a dictionary.
IV. Fairness and context
7. Terms - Define or eliminate unfamiliar terms, such as acronyms and jargon.
8. Fairness - Have all stakeholders been contacted and given a chance to talk?
9. Missing - Does the story leave any important question unanswered?
10. Context - Does the reader have the context to understand the story?
V. Your own common errors (for example, if you have a habit of getting dates wrong, misspelling names, ect.)
11. ____________________________________________
12.____________________________________________
VI. Final checks
13. Read the story aloud.
14. Have someone else read it.
15. Accompanying elements - Run the previous checks on the story's headlines, captions, sidebars, photos, graphics, videos, interactive media and podcasts. Check for inconsistencies.
*****
CHECKLIST ON AVOIDING ACCURACY PROBLEMS
Reporting isn't just about habits; it's also about a mindset that nothing is assumed and everything needs to be cross-checked for accuracy. This is a modified version of an editor's checklist on how to help reporters avoid inaccuracy problems by having the right skeptical mindset. I think there are some tips worth following. Let's take a look:
Problem: Not detail-oriented. Plan to ask at least five extra questions not covered in your assignment that go into greater detail; keep asking clarifying questions.
Problem: Making assumptions. Reports should back up statements in story with evidence; reporters should take their time and not rush during interviews; reporters should self-edit religiously and ask themselves if they can back up what they are writing; reporters should ask sources follow-up questions; reporters should ask the obvious questions to make sure they're not assuming; reporters should ask, "How do you know that? and "how do I know that?" of themselves and sources.
Problem: Interviewing confusion. Reporters shouldn't be shy about asking sources to slow down or repeat something; reporters ask "can you elaborate?" or say, "I don't understand"; reporters can repeat the information back to the source in their own words and give the source the opportunity to correct them; reporters can go back over direct quotes with the source; reporters can make a recording of events or interviews that can be checked.
Problem: Relying on out-of-date information. Never type something before you've checked it; always ask sources for an updated title; do research ahead of time; check Web sites for the last time they were updated and if it's been more than one year, then the information might be old; check the date on press releases.
Problem: Time constraints. Plan ahead for a long day -- start doing research the night before or get up early to get all your reporting done on time; overestimate the time everything will take; start writing what you know while waiting for that last callback, it might also help you find out earlier what you don't know; don't multitask during the editing process; keep fact-checking.
Problem: Exaggerating/using more powerful words than your reporting shows. Use precise language; use self-discipline and resist the urge to overwrite or overstate the facts; always attribute it. If you can't attribute some part of your story, then perhaps your words are wrong; reporters should use balanced reporting and make sure that it's reflected in the writing of the story; reporters should put the facts in the proper context.
Problem: Relying on unreliable sources. Reporters can ask sources for another source or documents to back up what they tell you; reporters should vet sources' credibility during interviews. Does what they're saying make sense? Always ask, "How do you know that?"
*****
You can also download a free copy of The Handy-Dandy Everybody’s Guide to Proofreading over at my blog, Peaceful Planet.
Don’t let mistakes tarnish your work of art, whether it’s a research paper, a blog post, a query letter, or business communication. And remember, proofreading is not the same as writing and editing. It’s not about creativity; it’s a science that needs a system. Follow these tips and create your own system, and you’ll have your Eagle Eye on in no time.
Leah McClellan is a freelance writer, copyeditor, proofreader, gardener, vegetarian, and animal lover who dreams of world peace and writes about communication atPeaceful Planet.
Please take a look at the suggestions here, and either work them into a regular routine that best works for you or make sure your existing routine is up to snuff.
*****
ACCURACY CHECKLIST FOR JOURNALISTS
Created by the Reynolds School for Business Journalism
Distributed by the Poynter Institute for Journalism
Instructions
After completing your story, use the down arrow on your keyboard to highlightand then complete each of these checks.
I. Facts
Check these first three items while your story is on the screen:
1. Run spell-check, review suggestions and correct any actual errors.
2. Click hyperlinks.
3. Call phone numbers.
Use a printout of the story for the remaining checks:
4. Put a ruler under each line as you read the text. Underline every fact, and then double-check each one, including:
a) Names and titles of people, places and companies - Also, does each second reference (Jones) have a first reference (Mary Jones)?
b) Numbers and calculations - Do the numbers add up? Is it millions or billions? Are the percentages correct?
c) Dates and ages - Watch references to “next month/last month” when the month is changing.
d) Quotes - Are quotes accurate and properly attributed? Have you fully captured what each person meant?
e) Superlatives - What’s your source that something is the biggest, oldest, etc.?
II. Grammar
5. Check each sentence for correct use of:
a) Subject-verb agreement - Also, are you consistent in your use of either the present or the past tense to tell the story?
b) Pronoun-noun agreement.
c) Plurals and possessives.
d) Punctuation.
III. Spelling
6. Read the story backwards, checking the spelling of each word. Use a dictionary.
IV. Fairness and context
7. Terms - Define or eliminate unfamiliar terms, such as acronyms and jargon.
8. Fairness - Have all stakeholders been contacted and given a chance to talk?
9. Missing - Does the story leave any important question unanswered?
10. Context - Does the reader have the context to understand the story?
V. Your own common errors (for example, if you have a habit of getting dates wrong, misspelling names, ect.)
11. ____________________________________________
12.____________________________________________
VI. Final checks
13. Read the story aloud.
14. Have someone else read it.
15. Accompanying elements - Run the previous checks on the story's headlines, captions, sidebars, photos, graphics, videos, interactive media and podcasts. Check for inconsistencies.
*****
CHECKLIST ON AVOIDING ACCURACY PROBLEMS
Reporting isn't just about habits; it's also about a mindset that nothing is assumed and everything needs to be cross-checked for accuracy. This is a modified version of an editor's checklist on how to help reporters avoid inaccuracy problems by having the right skeptical mindset. I think there are some tips worth following. Let's take a look:
Problem: Not detail-oriented. Plan to ask at least five extra questions not covered in your assignment that go into greater detail; keep asking clarifying questions.
Problem: Making assumptions. Reports should back up statements in story with evidence; reporters should take their time and not rush during interviews; reporters should self-edit religiously and ask themselves if they can back up what they are writing; reporters should ask sources follow-up questions; reporters should ask the obvious questions to make sure they're not assuming; reporters should ask, "How do you know that? and "how do I know that?" of themselves and sources.
Problem: Interviewing confusion. Reporters shouldn't be shy about asking sources to slow down or repeat something; reporters ask "can you elaborate?" or say, "I don't understand"; reporters can repeat the information back to the source in their own words and give the source the opportunity to correct them; reporters can go back over direct quotes with the source; reporters can make a recording of events or interviews that can be checked.
Problem: Relying on out-of-date information. Never type something before you've checked it; always ask sources for an updated title; do research ahead of time; check Web sites for the last time they were updated and if it's been more than one year, then the information might be old; check the date on press releases.
Problem: Time constraints. Plan ahead for a long day -- start doing research the night before or get up early to get all your reporting done on time; overestimate the time everything will take; start writing what you know while waiting for that last callback, it might also help you find out earlier what you don't know; don't multitask during the editing process; keep fact-checking.
Problem: Exaggerating/using more powerful words than your reporting shows. Use precise language; use self-discipline and resist the urge to overwrite or overstate the facts; always attribute it. If you can't attribute some part of your story, then perhaps your words are wrong; reporters should use balanced reporting and make sure that it's reflected in the writing of the story; reporters should put the facts in the proper context.
Problem: Relying on unreliable sources. Reporters can ask sources for another source or documents to back up what they tell you; reporters should vet sources' credibility during interviews. Does what they're saying make sense? Always ask, "How do you know that?"
*****
Get Your Eagle Eye On: 10 Tips for Proofreading Your Own Work
A guest post by Leah McClellan of Peaceful Planet
The best blog post I read this morning—of many—is good. Very good, actually. It flows. It’s fresh. It has a rhythm that drew me in and made me want to read every word. The ideas are thought-provoking.
But how much more enjoyable would it have been if I didn’t have to reread certain sections to make sure I was getting the gist of things? How much better would the post be if I didn’t hesitate at it’s instead of its and there instead of they’re? How much intended meaning and power was lost over a lack of subject-verb agreement or commas that might have been better placed?
Tripping, stumbling, and hesitating over misspelled words or ill-placed punctuation is like watching a TV show with a shaky cable signal or trying to talk while a cell phone connection is breaking up—the reader is jostled right out of the story the writer is telling.
If the errors are too big or too many, I’m outta there.
This writer intentionally broke a lot of rules in his 1100-word article, and he broke them well. Sentence fragments clustered together as ideas to ponder, a long list of items without commas that symbolizes repetitive drivel, the same word repeated over and over in a few short sentences to pound in a point. Good stuff and well done, for the most part.
Some grammar and punctuation rules can—and should—be broken, when you know what the rules are and how to break them effectively. But the lack of solid proofreading in this piece is like cake without icing, pottery without glaze, or a fine piece of wood in need of a polish. The writer didn’t step back and get his Eagle Eye on.
“Come on,” you chortle. “It’s hard to proofread your own work. And who notices anyway?”
Believe it or not, lots of people notice unless they’re just scanning. And it’s quite possible that many of those scanners might linger on every word you write if typos and bloopers and unintentionally-broken punctuation or grammar rules weren’t making them stumble and wonder and lose their focus.
Typos and errors break up the “voice” that readers are trying to hear as they read your written words.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a freelancer, a blogger, a student, or anyone who writes for any reason. Most of us don’t have proofreaders or a skilled family member or friend to help us out on a regular basis. And if you’re submitting work to an agent or publisher or a big blog for consideration, why let typos and mistakes clutter and cloud the brilliant work you want them to read?
Any time you write something, you want readers to enjoy and appreciate your masterpiece. It’s your baby, an extension of yourself. Take good care of it.
Writing and editing is art. Proofreading is science.
So says Rushang Shah, President of Gramlee.com, an online editing service with editors behind the scenes constantly proofreading and copyediting. Rushang says that “all proofreading and copyediting involves the human element, and that’s why computers cannot replace a proofreader.”
Proofreading your own work can be challenging, it’s true. You already know the story, you already have a picture in your mind of what to expect and, as a result, you tend to skim over words and groups of words. Plus, you know your own voice and, even if there are errors in your writing, you don’t “hear” them or see them because you’re in a hurry, and your mind fills in the blanks as you skim over things. You might be daydreaming—even if you’re reading out loud.
If you have a system, though, proofreading can be like doing a quality check on an assembly line. It’s just busy work, really, and not very creative at all. But it’s so important.
Here are some tips to help you get your Eagle Eye on and proofread your own work like a pro.
1. Don’t proofread until you’re completely finished with the actual writing and editing. If you make major changes while proofreading, even if it’s just within sentences, you’re still in an artistic, creative mode, not a science mode.
2. Make sure you have no distractions or potential interruptions. Shut down email and social media, hide the cell phone, shut off the TV, radio, or music, and close the door. Print your document if you need to get away from the computer altogether.
3. Forget the content or story. Analyze sentence by sentence; don’t read in your usual way. Focus on spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Work backwards, if that helps, or say the words and sentences out loud. Concentrate.
4. Make several passes for different types of errors. Try checking spelling and end punctuation on one pass, grammar and internal punctuation on another, and links or format on yet another pass. Develop a system.
5. Take notes. If you notice a format issue while checking spelling or if you need to look something up, make a quick note and come back to it so you don’t lose your focus.
6. If you do make a last-minute change to a few words, be sure to check the entire sentence or even paragraph over again. Many errors are the result of changes made without adjusting other, related words.
7. Check facts, dates, quotes, tables, references, text boxes, and anything repetitive or outside of the main text separately. Focus on one element or several related aspects of your writing at a time.
8. Monitor yourself. If you find yourself drifting off and thinking about something else, go back over that section again. Try slapping your hand or tapping a foot in a rhythm as you examine each word and sentence out loud.
9. Get familiar with your frequent mistakes. Even the most expreienced writer mixes up their, they’re, and there or too, two, and to. When I’m tried or writing fast, I right what I here in my mind and just get careless. Not a big deal. That’s what proofreading is for. You caught those errors, didn’t you?
10. Check format last. Every document has format, even an email, whether it’s paragraph spacing, text wrap, indentations, spaces above and below a bullet list or between subheadings and text, and so on. Leave this for the end because contents may shift during handling.
You already know better than to rely on spell-check, so I won’t belabor the point except to say that “wear form he untied stats” doesn’t bother spell-check but it might get an American in trouble at a customs checkpoint.
What if you don’t quite know what you’re looking for while proofreading?
Do you know basic comma rules, how to use a semi-colon, or when to use who orwhom? You might have an excellent sense of what things should look like or sound like, especially if you’re an avid reader, but if you don’t know basic grammar and punctuation rules, proofreading might be guesswork, at best, with doubtful results, at worst. Why not make your life easier and your writing better? Take some time to learn basic rules from some online resources I consult when I need help:
You can also download a free copy of The Handy-Dandy Everybody’s Guide to Proofreading over at my blog, Peaceful Planet.
Don’t let mistakes tarnish your work of art, whether it’s a research paper, a blog post, a query letter, or business communication. And remember, proofreading is not the same as writing and editing. It’s not about creativity; it’s a science that needs a system. Follow these tips and create your own system, and you’ll have your Eagle Eye on in no time.
Leah McClellan is a freelance writer, copyeditor, proofreader, gardener, vegetarian, and animal lover who dreams of world peace and writes about communication atPeaceful Planet.
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