More Ledes -- Say What You Mean . . .

. . . and mean what you say.

Make sure that you don't say something that's not true. Like in this lede:

On the way to his wedding, a young man smashed into two trees and a fence trying to avoid a large dog in the street. The 22-year-old was pronounced dead 15 minutes before saying, "I do."

So, what you just literally said was that he died, and then said "I do."

Obviously, that's not the case. And just as obviously, that's not what you meant. What you meant was that he was pronounced dead 15 minutes before he was to say, "I do."

But that's NOT what you said! And that is a fatal error.

Here's a double-fatal:

A car theft called police after being spooked by unsuspecting passengers.

This is the corpse-in-a-van story. First, a theft didn't call police; a thief did. This is another example of spell check not helping you when you correctly spell the wrong word.

Secondly, there was only one corpse. Hence, one passenger. You have passengers in a plural form, meaning two or more. That's not correct.

Make sure that you say what you mean -- what is supported by the facts, that is -- and mean what you say.