We had four people fatal in this exercise. Not good.
Let's go over the goofs.
Three of the fatals revolved around the misspelling of the gunman's last name. It wasn't the common spelling of Weiss, it was Wiess.
First, you should have noticed the different spelling. Second, if you found it odd, you should have double-checked with your sources to see if in fact the name was spelled in an uncommon way.
Really, I was surprised no one asked me about that before turning in your assignments.
And the fourth fataler offered this paraphrase: ... it is against company policy to have a fun in the store.
What that writer meant to say was, a gun in the store. But as we've noted many times before, spell check will not catch an incorrect word when it is spelled correctly. Since the word change changes a quote, it is a fatal.
I know when you're on deadline there's this rush to finish. Still, make sure you have adequate time to do a basic fact-check. Some of those who fataled in this assignment finished well ahead of the deadline, and left unused several minutes that could have helped catch their mistakes.
Plus, I'd rather have you write a shorter -- but fact-checked and on-time -- story than a longer one. With these in-class exercises, don't worry about length; worry about getting in the information you need to get in, on time and correct.
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