School/Squirrels: Fatals Suck

Sorry to say we had three fatals on these exercises. Here the one that was with the schools exercise. it is:

The East Lansing School Board proposed the band after receiving complaints from parents from both the home and away districts.

Now, you meant to say ban, not band. But in this case, the misspelling creates a new word that's correctly spelled, and changes meaning. The district did not propose a band.

And it's a harsh reminder that you need to eyeball your story in addition to running spell check. Spell check will not catch words that as a misspelling creates a new and unintended word that is spelled correctly.

We had two with the squirrels story. In one, you misspelled the last name of the LCC dietitican as Ruffenbock, instead of the correct Ruffenboch. That is a fatal. Please make sure you are double-checking the spellings of all names and titles to make sure what you wrote matches up with what you have in your notes (or, in this case, your textbook).

Please make sure you are double-checking the spellings of all names and titles to make sure what you wrote matches up with what you have in your notes (or, in this case, your textbook).

In the other fatal, you referred to the school two different ways: as Lake Lansing Community College, and just Lansing Community College. Not only could this fatal have been caught by comparing it against your notes, it also could have been caught by thoroughly reviewing your written work before turning it in and discovering you had two different titles for the same thing. One has to be wrong, right?

I'm sorry we had some fatals. But it's not unexpected in the first few writing assignments. Not at all. You're still getting comfortable with balancing two competing needs: meeting your deadline and being accurate. Those are two tough things to combine. But that's the job.

And that's why we have practice stories: so you have opportunities to build and refine good writing and fact-checking habits and to find an ideal balance between the two, in situations that are relatively low-weight when it comes to your final grade.

What I've typically seen is a spate of fatals in the first half of any term, and then a sudden and steep decrease in the second half. I've had people who just about fataled every writing assignment in the first half who were perfect in the second. We're working fatals out of your system right now.

So while it's frustrating, don't get frustrated. Work on your good habits. Do away with the bad ones. Balance the clock and accuracy. Refer to the fact-checking checklist handout I distributed earlier this term.  Take advantage of extra credit opportunities to make your fatals go away (and you will have such opportunities).

Let's not fret over this. Let's learn from this, and apply those lessons going forward. That's why we do practice stories.