Here are some highlights from the test ledes exercise:
>>> Watch what you say
Is this right?
East Lansing school officials have unveiled a new program today . . .
Actually, it's less clear than it could be. The unveiling was today, not the new program. It would have been more on point to say this:
East Lansing school officials today unveiled a new program . . .
>>> Quote only quotes
One of you wrote that the tradition of fire poles . . .
. . . will be "extinguished" sometime next year.
I know what you were trying to do: be cute. You put quotations around a pun. But we don't do that in journalism. Quotes go around what somebody actually said ONLY.
Nothing wrong with puns. Just find another way to be punny.
>>> Watch the fatals.
Sorry to say we had some. One person put the location as Lansing, when it was East Lansing. Another person reversed the first and last names of a source. These are all fatals. And all are easily preventable, as long as you take sufficient time to note detail and double-check work.
Avoiding fatals is like avoiding death in a car accident. Do the little things all the time -- look both ways before crossing a street, wear your seat belt, ect. -- and the odds that you'll wreck shrink to a tiny ratio. Overlook these fundamental actions, and your odds get worse.
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