Test Story #3 . . . Some Highlights

Seems like all the video stuff made you a bit rusty on your writing. Let's go over some patterns I saw that I feel can be improved upon:

>>> Yes, we did have a fatal. The essence of journalism is getting it right. That's our first duty; to make sure what we wrote lines up with the facts. In this case, you referred to the fire department as the Ingham County Fire Department, even though on the board it was written that the fire department was of Meridian Township and the county commission was of Ingham County.

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: there is no such thing as a small error in journalism. Any mistake erodes your credibility with readers, and gets them wondering what else you may have gotten wrong. If you're going to make it as a journalist, you MUST make fact-checking your top priority.

Don't take fact-checking for granted. Learn to check items, line-by-line and item-by-item.

>>> The news isn't that things were discussed; it's what was done or not done. Too many ledes or section starts defaulted to things were discussed. That's not the news, right?

This was a lede that went in that direction:

The Ingham County Commission met Sunday afternoon and discussed plans for new condominiums, a proposed gun ordinance, and a rejected pay raise for commissioners.

You would have been better off to emphasize what happened -- and de-emphasize the simple fact that they met -- like this:

The Ingham County Commission on Sunday approved a plan for new condominium, discussed a proposed gun ordinance and rejected a pay raise for commissioners.

Just putting everything into a catch-all category like "discussed" -- when some of the items wet far beyond discussion and resulted in inaction -- falls short of ultimate outcome.

>>> Label transitions to subsections. When ending reporting on one item and beginning another item, use transitional tags at the start of a subsection lede like, "In other business," or "Also at the meeting," so readers can see the transition point clearly.

>>> Fact-checking includes checking for AP Style. I don't still have to remind you of that, do I?