Your Friday 1/27 Homework

More ledes for you all! It's the same kind of exercise; you're being given four sets of information; write four ledes (one for each). In this exercise, you may do either a basic summary lede OR some sort of alternative lede, along the lines of what we've read and blogged about earlier. 

In these ledes exercises, "your city" is defined as East Lansing. "Today" will be defined as the deadline day, which will be Monday. "Your university" will be defined as Michigan State University.

The slug for this exercise will be MORE LEDES. Your deadline will be 9 a.m. Monday, in a Word document via email to omars@msu.edu.

A reminder: formatting in the top left-hand corner of your paper should be:

Your name
Jan. 30, 2017
More Ledes 

The MORE LEDES slug should also be the title of your Word document and the email which you'll send to me. Please be sure to start working on this assignment ONLY after you've reviewed your graded previous assignment (which I have emailed back to you by now) and the blog post review of the previous assignment.

Again, deadline will be 9 a.m. Monday. PLEASE BE SURE TO REVIEW THE FOLLOWING POSTS REVIEWING THE PREVIOUS EXERCISE BEFORE YOU START THIS ASSIGNMENT!

Here's the info from which to write your ledes: 

EMPHASIZING THE UNUSUAL

Write only a lead for each of the following stories. As you write the leads, emphasize stories’ unusual details. Correct stories’ spelling, style and vocabulary errors. Also, none of the possessives have been formed for you.

1.   Scott Forsythe is 22 years old. He was killed in a car accident today. Police in East Lansing say the accident occurred at about 8:45 AM this morning on Kirkmann Rd. Forsythe was driving a ford mustang. Police estimate the vehicle was traveling at least 100 m.p.h. and witnesses told police it was passing slower traffic when a large dog walked into his path. As Forsythe veered to avoid the dog he lost control of his car and hit two trees and a fence before coming to a complete stop, police said. The accident occurred about a half mile from the church where he was to be married to Sara Howard of 812 Bell Av. at 9:00 a.m. today He was alone in the vehicle. No one else was hurt.

2.   Your city needs more money. Its in a financial crisis and trying to trim its expenses. So today East Lansing officials announced that every time someone is arrested and the police take mug shots and fingerprints, the jail will charge them $25 for the service. Police chief Barry Kopperrud said he wants to make criminals pay a price for their actions. “They have to learn there’s a cost for their behavior,” Kopperrud said today. “Decent citizens shouldn’t have to pay for this. Let the crooks and other bad guys pay the full cost what it costs to arrest and incarcerate them.” The fee will go into effect immediately but will be refunded to people who are arrested and later acquitted.

WRITING ALTERNATIVE LEADS

Using techniques you studied in this chapter, write an alternative lead for each of the following stories. You may want to use complete or partial quotations, questions, descriptions, buried leads, multiparagraph leads, suspense or chronological order. Or, you may want to try a shocking lead, ironic lead, direct-address lead or a word used in an unusual way. Correct any errors you find.

1.   A group of ecologists and biologists at Michigan State University and other schools have come up with a unique idea. They want to transplant African wildlife to the Great Plains of North America. Julie Allen, 1504 Lincoln Drive, is an associate professor of biology at your university. She had this to say about the idea, “I think it would be wonderful to drive across the Great Plains and see lions and elephants and giraffes roaming the prairie.” The idea was developed by more than 30 scientists as a way to perpetuate species that are slowly facing extinction because of declining habitat in Africa. The scientists say there is plenty of room left in the American West for these types of animals. Relocating the animals could help them increase their numbers. The plan is being criticized by ranchers, developers and other scientists, who say that it would be difficult to introduce animals to a place they had never lived. Ranchers, such as Jim Smithson, who lives in North Dakota and is vice president of the Western Stockman’s Association, claims such a move would devastate the regions cattle industry. “How many steers or dairy cows can a pride of lions eat in a week?” Smithson said. Supporters of the idea say the animals they want to relocate would be held in large game parks or private reserves. They would not be allowed to roam free. Other critics say the transplanting of alien creatures could have devastating effects on native creatures. The animals being brought to places they have never lived could introduce new diseases or could destroy native wildlife. In addition, taking wildlife from Africa could hurt the tourist trade on that continent.

2.   It was an intense situation for police Wednesday afternoon. It was an adventure for the six-month-old daughter of Michael and Ethel Perakiss of 876 Collins Street. Everything ended OK, police said. Megan Perakiss, the daughter of Michael and Ethel, was in the back seat of a 2006 Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle when it was carjacked by a man who had just held up the convenience store where Ethel had stopped to get gas. The robbery of the Quik Shoppe convenience store at 2752 Michigan Avenue occurred shortly after 2 p.m., according to Police Chief Barry Kopperud. Kopperud said the suspect walked into the store and waved a handgun in the face of Edwin C. Jimenez, manager of the store. He ordered Jimenez to empty the cash register into a cloth bag he threw on the counter and threatened to shoot him if he did not. The thief made off with an undetermined amount of money. Megan was unaware of what was going on. Police said Ethel pulled into the convenience store to get fuel and had just finished pumping the gas when the robber ran from the store and pushed her away from the vehicle. Reports of the carjacking sparked a massive, multi-agency search for Megan that at one point included nearly two dozen units from the city’s police force. Ethel Perakiss left her keys in the ignition while she was filling the fuel tank. Police described the armed robbery and carjacking suspect as a 6 foot 1 inch tall white male in his early to mid-20s wearing a white T-shirt and long black pants. He had short, neatly cropped hair. “My baby’s in the back seat,” Perakiss shouted as the carjacker drove away. About 40 minutes after the ordeal began, Kopperuud said, police officers spotted the missing vehicle abandoned in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant with Megan inside. The carjacker apparently had fled, leaving the vehicle unlocked and running with the air conditioner on. Police said they were shocked but pleased that the incident ended so quickly and without harm to the child.

First Ledes: Your Grades

For our first graded assignment, I'm giving you all a break, as we ease into the graded portion of the semester.

First, as long as you had no fatals (that is, fact errors) and your work met the deadline, you received a 4.0 on this assignment. Each portion that included a fatal dropped that grade by 1.0. Missing the deadline earned a 0.0. I did not grade adherence to AP Style (because we haven't started learning that yet), but I did note it.

I am emailing you back your work, with a grade and instructor comments attached at the end. (some of the comments may be inserted in your work, in bold face and all caps.) Many more comments will be on the following blog posts, where I'm taking examples of our work (with names stripped from the work) and pointing out what worked well (and why), and what could be better (and how).

That's the method we're going to use in doing most of our learning in this class: we will work an assignment, and then we will deconstruct the assignment via blog and pick out and share whatever lessons we can learn from it.

Now, please keep in mind the way we're grading this assignment is a one-time deal. From here on out, you'll be graded more precisely on whether you're correctly executing the concepts we're reading and blogging about.

Having said that, most people were very proficient in this assignment. Even without the mercy grades, I think most people would have scored very well on this assignment. Kudos to you folks.

First Ledes: Some Strong Examples

With basic summary ledes, we want to be able to get to the central point, end result and ultimate outcome of the story right away, without the need to read anything else to know exactly how things ended up, and/or what made a story most relevant, interesting and useful.

I think the following ledes meet that standard. Take a look, and compare them to your ledes:

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control revealed 43 percent of American marriages result in a divorce within the first 15 years of marriage.

... and ... 

East Lansing public school officials announced a new program that will offer housing mortgages with below-market interest rates for teachers and administrators to combat low salary wages.

... and ... 

With new one-story stations coming in the future, the Kalamazoo Fire Department will no longer continue its 100-year-plus tradition of sliding down a pole to reach the fire engines.

... and ...  

Detroit officials announced Wednesday two more Kennedy High School students have picked up tuberculosis from a classmate, testing positive for the deadly disease during last week’s 170-student inspection.

Please notice how they are written in a simple, easy-to-understand style; how they get to the point in a succinct manner; and how they cite the most telling statistics and/or facts.

I'm happy to say that in this exercise, many of our ledes were similar to these. Really good job the first time around, folks.

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. 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 fire department's pole-sliding was a centuries-old tradition (plural), when in fact it was a century-old tradition (singular). Yes, it changes the meaning from one hundred years to hundreds of years, so it is a fatal.

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 one 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.

First Ledes: The News Is What Happened

I'm afraid this lede falls short in that regard:

On Wednesday, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control released their results on American marriage based on a study of 50,000 women, providing possible explanation for the high divorce rate in the U.S.

The lede says what took place -- a study -- but it fails to say what the study found. The news isn't that results were released; it's what the results were. The news isn't that the results provide a possible explanation; it's what the explanation is.

With this lede, the reader has no idea what makes this newsworthy. In many ways, this lede is like a football game lede that says ...

On Friday, the MSU football team played Notre Dame.

... which, obviously, we'd never do. The news is who won the game, by how much, ect. A better lede would incorporate those elements, like this:

On Friday, MSU's football team beat Notre Dame, 152-0.

So, we need to do the same thing with our research lede: incorporate the end results. So, instead of saying they released their results on American marriage based on a study of 50,000 women, let's say what some key results of that study were, like, people who are younger, less religious and live together before marriage are at greater risk for divorce.

Let's swap out those phrases, and we have a lede like this:

On Wednesday, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control said people who are younger, less religious and live together before marriage are at greater risk for divorce, providing possible explanation for the high divorce rate in the U.S.

Now, we have a solid idea of exactly what the study found; not just that there was a study that found something.

Let's make sure our ledes get to that end result and ultimate outcome, just like a sports story would. 

First Ledes: Get To The News!

The news isn't that something took place; it's what ended up happening. It's about ultimate outcome. This lede takes some time to get to the latter:

The Centers for Disease Control conducted elaborate studies on American marriages, with staggering truths about divorce rates revealed.  The CDC concludes women’s wealth, religion, and education play drastic roles in the break-up rate.

What holds us up here is the mention of staggering truths. It tells us that there are truths, but it doesn't say what those truths are. It's kind of a waste of time and space. In English composition we prize wordiness, but in journalistic writing we strive for the exact opposite. We went to be precise and efficient in word use.

What I recommend is getting straight to the point by cutting out that middle section of, conducted elaborate studies on American marriages, with staggering truths about divorce rates revealed. The CDC ... that hints at -- but fails to specify -- the findings.

Then I'd merge what was left, leaving us with this:

The Centers for Disease Control concludes women’s wealth, religion, and education play drastic roles in the marriage break-up rate.

Now, we're emphasizing  the end result and ultimate outcome, without the clutter that doesn't really say much.

First Ledes: Two Sentences Are NOT Better Than One

In writing for journalism, we need to look for spots where we can reduce wordiness and be efficient in word use.

I see an opportunity with this lede:

Teachers in East Lansing will be provided with financial relief, thanks to a new program. The program will offer mortgages with below-market interest rates to teachers and administrators in public schools. 

First, we should always be on the lookout for opportunities to reduce a two-sentence lede to just one sentence. A good indication of whether you can possibly do that is if you refer to something twice.

Like, when you refer to the "program" at the end of the first sentence, and the start of the second sentence. Why not merge those references -- and sentences -- like this:

Teachers in East Lansing will be provided with financial relief, thanks to a new program offering mortgages with below-market interest rates to teachers and administrators in public schools.

See what I did there? We've cut out excessive wordiness and redundancy.

First Ledes: Don't Forget Your Articles!

I don't mean stories. A mean a grammatical article, like a, an, the.

Like here: Tuberculosis on the rise at Detroit’s Kennedy High School.

It should be, Tuberculosis is on the rise at Detroit’s Kennedy High School.

When it comes to writing for news, what messes us up regarding articles are newspaper headlines, which usually drop articles in favor of brevity. While that is true of headlines, that is not true of the actual stories under the headlines. Articles need articles.

If you're not sure if you have articles, read your story out loud and ask yourself if it sounds like you've formed complete sentences (e.g., do you sound like a robot talking -- must bowl now -- or a human being -- I must bowl now?). If not, it's usually because you're missing an article.

First Ledes: Writing With (AP) Style

In this assignment you weren't asked to write conforming to AP style. And on this one I won't grade you on that basis. Still, we're going to use this opportunity to start picking up some of the more common AP style points, as in most future assignments I will grade you based on AP style usage.

Like with how to refer to money. Is it $10,000 with the dollar symbol ahead of the amount or 10,000 dollars, with dollars spelled out?

It's the former This is what I pulled from the AP Stylebook, under dollars: Use figures and the $ sign in all except casual references or amounts without a figure.

Number usage has its own specific style under AP rules. Here's the most basic AP guideline, in your style book under numerals: In general "Spell out whole numbers below 10, use figures for 10 and above."

So two should be two, not 2. And 10 should be 10, not ten.

So then, is this correct to start a sentence, under AP Style rules, by spelling out a number like this?

Twenty-two . . . 

Actually, that IS correct number use. This is under the numerals heading:

Spell out a numeral at the beginning of a sentence.

Also, Is it 100 year-old with a hyphen between year and old or 100-year-old with hyphens between everything or 100 year old with no hyphens at all? AP Style under ages: Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun.

So it's 100-year-old, with hyphens between the 100 and year, and between the year and old.

Also, is it Kalamazoo's Fire Chief, with the title in caps, or Kalamazoo's fire chief, with the title lower-cased?

In the absence of a name with the title, it's the latter.How do I know that? AP Style, under titles:

In general confine capitalization to formal titles used directly before an individual's name ... capitalize formal titles when they are used immediately before one or more names.

So, if you just say Kalamazoo fire chief, it's lower-case. If you say Kalamazoo Fire Chief Tom Izzo, it's upper-case. 

There are a ton of exceptions under titles, so that's a section you probably want to check frequently.


Another AP no-no is using the percentage symbol of % instead of spelling out the word percent. The correct use is to spell out the symbol, like this: 35 percent. Please review the AP listing under percent.

Moving on, many of you referred to the Centers for Disease Control as just that in your lede. A few of you called used its acronym of CDC in a first reference. An acronym is a word formed from the first letter or letters of a series of words, such as MSU (which is the acronym for Michigan State University).

And using an acronym on first reference is probably a no-no.

In most first cases, it's best to spell out the full title of an entity. If an acronym is especially well-known -- like NASA or FBI or USA -- then generally it is acceptable in a first reference. I'm not sure CDC makes that cut, FYI.

Now, in subsequent references you have a few options. One is to refer to the center in the generic, like I just did: as the center, lower-cased. A second option would be to consider using the acronym, after establishing what the acronym is in the first reference.

This is where I'm going to refer you back to AP Style. Please carefully read and review the listing for abbreviations and acronyms.

Speaking of the CDC, was it Center for Disease Control or Centers for Disease Control? Did anybody check AP style under Centers for Disease Control? What does it say?

The idea behind AP style is not simply to drive you crazy; it's also to create a consistent way of referring to terms and phrases and stats and such throughout not just a story, but throughout all stories offered by a single media organization. Consistency is the key point I'd like you to learn here, and we'll use AP style as the baseline.

I know the AP Stylebook is a lot to digest. But as this class goes on, I expect that you improve by checking your word use against the AP Stylebook, and by remembering AP Style rules as we go along.

What I'm saying is, I don't expect you to make the same mistake twice. I expect you to learn from your mistakes and apply the lessons going forward.

When it comes to types of language you're likely to frequently -- like numbers and money references -- you may want to make a cheat sheet that you can quickly refer to. Just an idea, 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 Jan. 26, 2017)
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 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 26. That's a.m., as in the morning. That gives you not a ton 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. 

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 10 a.m. Thursday 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 office hours. 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.)

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.
 

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.

RFTM Chapter 3: Newswriting Style

What do newswriters do? Provide information in a clear and concise manner using simple language. Simple language is important because you are trying to reach an audience with widely varied capabilities and interests. To communicate effectively to a mass audience, you must present information in a way that will allow almost everyone to read and understand it.

(This is the exact opposite of what you've learned in English composition all these years, where teachers encourage you to use big and fancy words. For practical writing, this is an awful habit, as is much we're going to un-learn you from English comp this term. Use simple words and simple terms, please.)

Also, present factual information succinctly and in an impartial and objective manner. You must provide enough information so that the audience understands what happened, and keep your opinion out of stories.

(Again, a big diff between English comp and journalism is that in English comp, we write to express ourselves. In journalism, we write to share facts we've verified. Writing isn't about our self-expression; it's about informing an audience first and foremost.)

The pre-writing process. Ask yourself these questions: what is the story about? Why is it newsworthy? How is its central point unique? Failure to identify a central point risks a story that is incoherent and incomplete. Try to develop one central point thoroughly. A story with several apparent central points may be worth more than one story.

How do you find a central point? Report! What we write and how we write it isn't based on personal expression and opinion; it's based on what we discover in the reporting process, and what we determine is most interesting, relevant and useful to our audience.

The story outline. We start with the lede paragraph. That's the first paragraph of a story, which may contain the central point or a telling anecdote that sets up the central point. Often, the lede goes to end result and ultimate outcome; e.g., how the story ended and what is the latest information.

(Again, this is another big way journalism differs from English comp. In English comp, the ending is the ending. But in journalism, the ending is the lede: who won the football game, what the city council ended up doing, how many people died in the tornado outbreak, ect.)

Use simplifying words, sentences and paragraphs. Avoid long, unfamiliar words (e.g., instead of "homicide," say "murder. Instead of "vehicle," say "car" or "van" or "bus" or whatever. Instead of "inebriated vehicle operator," say "drunk driver.")

Use short sentences and paragraphs. The longer a sentence is, the more difficult it is to understand. You can shorten sentences by using the "normal word order" of subject, then verb, then direct object (e.g., instead of saying "The homework was eaten by the dog," say "The dog ate the homework.")

Write for the ear. Use sentences that do not sound awkward or inappropriate when spoken. (If you're not sure if a sentence flows well, read it out loud. Does it sound choppy or stilted or a hot mess? Then it probably reads the same way. Rewrite it as necessary until it's easy to say and hear out loud.)

Eliminate unnecessary words. Writers who use two words when one would suffice simply waste space. (Again, in English comp you are encouraged to be wordy; in journalism, we want to be efficient with our word use.) Eliminate multiple words that convey the same idea (e.g., "past history." History is the past. Eliminate one of those words.)

Remain objective. Reporters are neutral observers, not advocates or participants. Reporters provide facts and details, not opinion. (Again, journalism isn't about you expressing yourself; it's about informing the audience on what you discovered during the reporting process.)

Avoid stereotypical isms. Like, racism. (Only mention race when clearly relevant to a story, like a detailed suspect description.) Or, sexism. (Avoid occupational terms that exclude one sex or the other, like "fireman." Use "firefighter" instead.) Or ageism and word usage with the disabled, veterans and religious groups, and the poor. ("Old fogey, Bible-beater, bum," ect.) 

RFTM Chapter 4: The Language Of News

Be precise. Understand the words you use, and use words that are clear, concise and accurate. Journalists who do not use words correctly can confuse or irritate their readers. That undermines credibility and questions accuracy. (After all, if you can't get the small things right -- like proper word use -- how can you get the big things right, and why should a reader trust you?) .

Journalists who do not use words correctly can convey a meaning that was not intended. (Here's a real example from my professional career that ended up on the Jay Leno show: I wrote a short story about a man who was arrested, and when he was strip-searched in jail they found he was hiding crack cocaine between his butt cheeks. And here was the headline an editor wrote: MAN HID CRACK IN BUTTOCKS. Hardy har har.)

Use strong verbs. What is a strong verb? A verb that describes the action taking place, in an active tense. (For example, on 9/11 it would be underwhelming to say planes "hit" the Twin Towers. It would be more accurate and contextual to say the planed "slammed" into the buildings.)

(Let me be clear: the verb still has to be accurate, and not an exaggeration. Don't hype up a story without reason; our reason comes from facts. Like in the 9/11 example; the planes didn't just pop into the Twin Towers. They were tons of steel and human life racing at almost 500 mph. striking with such power that the buildings buckled, and eventually fell. The facts cry out for context and to the severity of what happened. It has nothing to do with how I want to write it.)

Avoid adjectives and adverbs. Most are unnecessary, and simply restate the obvious. And it may inject opinion into the story. There's no need to say something horrible is "grim" or "tragic;" the presentation of facts will make that clear.

Avoid cliches, which are words and phrases that have been used over and over again, like someone being "as blind as a bat" or "old as dirt." It's just lazy writing; come up with something descriptive and original instead.

Avoid slang. It can become dated; it can convey alternative meanings; it can confuse readers of certain ages of ethic groups. (For example, if you told your grandma "Whatevs, obvi," would she know what the hell you were talking about? And that's a great test; if your grandma wouldn't understand your word use, then use simpler and clearer language.)

Avoid or translate technical language and jargon. Journalists should translate jargon into plain English. (e.g., instead of "cardiac arrest," say "heart attack.") If you don't know what a layman's term may be for a given word or phrase, ask your source for a translation in plain English or check resources online that could do the same.

Avoid using vague expressions known as euphemisms in place of harsher but more direct terms. (For example, "expecting" is a euphemism for "pregnant." "Downsizing" is a euphemism for "laid off" or "fired." "Passed away" is a euphemism for "dying." Don't use such euphemisms.) Euphemisms detract from clarity and precision in writing.

Don't use first-person references outside of quotes, like I, me, my, our, ect.  Those betray a reporter's neutral bystander role.

Avoid the negative. I don't mean bad news; I mean negative sentence construction, like "the dog did not stay awake," instead of the better "the dog slept." Sentences with multiple negatives can become tough to understand (e.g., "the dog did not stay awake while his owner was not home" can be simplified to, "The dog slept while his owner was away.")

Avoid an echo. An echo is a redundant word. (For example, "frozen tundra" includes an echo, because the definition of "tundra" is frozen ground. So, when you say "frozen tundra," you're saying "frozen frozen ground.")

Avoid gush. This is writing with exaggerated enthusiasm. ("The 5th Annual Spelling Bee was an awesome mega-event that will never be forgotten!") Use facts to substantiate your descriptions. If the spelling bee included the largest fireworks show in history and multiple people are quoted as saying that this was the peak of their lives, then the aforementioned lede may be okay. If your facts don't support it, then it's not. Find words and phrases that accurately set the scene.)

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.

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:

Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips

Purdue Online Writing Lab: General Writing Resources

Oxford Dictionaries: Better Writing

GrammarBook.com

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.