Drowning: Yes, We Had Fatals

Five fact fatals, and technically a sixth fatal for forgetting to turn in the assignment by the 9 a.m. Tuesday deadline.

The latter isn't a fatal because I'm being an ass. In journalism, deadlines are critical to make and meet. Like I've said, if you're writing a script for the 11 o'clock news, you can't turn in a script at 11 0'clock and five seconds. The show is already on the air. You have to meet your deadlines EVERY time, and you often have to juggle various deadlines in your head and make sure each is met without prompting.

This is a necessary skill in journalism. That's why we recognize its importance by making it a fatal.

Now, on to the fact fatals: two of you incorrectly referred to Nichols Lake as Nicholas Lake. That changes a fact, and that is a fatal.

One of you had an easy way to catch the error, too: you spelled the lake as both Nichols and Nicholas. A thorough post-writing review would have noticed you spelled one thing in two ways, and that one of those ways had to be wrong.

A third fatal had a similar missed opportunity, by spelling the last name of the doctor as Lowrie and the incorrect Lowerie.

Fatal number four also was due to a double-spelling, this time of the victim as McGorwan and McGorman.

Folks, this is nuts-and-bolts level stuff. You're overlooking the little things here, and the little things are precisely the sort of things you need to be checking religiously. You need to get int the habit of checking EVERY name and EVERY number and EVERY date and EVERY small factoid in your stories.

The final fatal came from a misunderstanding of the facts. You wrote that McDowell died today, when in fact McDowell died the day before and it was McGorwan who died later after being taken off a respirator.

Again, this falls under understanding what you are writing about before you start writing, and making sure that what reflected the facts was what you wrote, post-writing. Make sure you understand how the sequence of events went down, both in your head before you start typing abd after you finish and as you read your work.