Missing -- Fatals, Ugh ...

Four fatals on this assignment. In one, you referred to the U.S. Justice Bureau. In fact, it is the U.S. Justice Department. And yes, something that snitty is a fatal. You're changing the literaql name of something.

As noted in your syllabus, on page 6:

Any factual error, such as misspelling a name, a misquotation or an error that changes the meaning of a story, will automatically result in a grade of 0. (e.g., President "Barack Obamma" or "Department of Transport").

That fatal hurt me to score, because so much of the story was so good (the third anecdotal lede from the pervious post was this fatal).

But if we can't get it right and get it on time, it doesn't matter.

The next one also changed a quote in a minor way -- from "10 years" to "10 year." That's a misquote. And it's also a reminder that spell check is very good at catching words that are spelled incorrectly, but it's not any good when your misspelling creates an unintended -- but correctly spelled -- word.

Spell check is a complement to -- but not a substitute for -- checking a story by eyeball, going line-by-line and fact-by-fact.

This same author had another fatal: it listed Sgt. Manuel Cortez as a member of the Ohio Police Department. The text listed Cortez as a member of your city's police department, and on the dry erase board your city was listed as Cleveland.

The next had a simple numerical error. It incorrectly cited 51,123 missing Ohioans last year, when in fact there were 57,123. One wrong digit is all it takes, folks. Be sure to check numbers. This fatal ruined what was otherwise a great story -- in the ledes post, it's the second straight lede.

The last one confused the stories of Sabrina the runaway girl and Jason Abare the divorce-ditcher. Yes, the stories were placed together but you had no information offered that indicated the two cases were related. It was up to you to distinguish that by reading and accurately assessing the information you were given.

That latter writer almost had another fatal. This was their lede:

Missing persons are on the rise in the nation ...

Nowhere were you given any information indicating the amount of people missing was more or less or the same as previous years. That was a dangerous assumption to make. And it might have been a fatal, if you didn't have one already.

Be careful, folks. Don't assume. Be sure you properly analyze your information. Make sure you get names and terms correct. That's the job, folks.