Speech: Fatals

Another fatal, this time from a fudged-up quote in which "year" and "of" were spelled "ear" and "f." Any error in quote is a fatal. We have to get quotes exactly right every time.

For those of you suffering a fatals streak, please sloooow down. Start devoting a larger share of writing time to fact-checking. I'd rather have you right short than wrong. And start using the accuracy checklist I passed out during the first few weeks of class. If you can't find it, here's the content:

One note: I know in this class we can't print things out. But we can use a sheet of paper to write out every fact, name, title and so on as we go through a digital copy of the story.

And for out-of-class stories, I would expect these checklists to be followed to the smallest detail.

ACCURACY CHECKLIST FOR JOURNALISTS

Created by the Reynolds School for Business Journalism

Distributed by the Poynter Institute for Journalism

Instructions

After completing your story, use the down arrow on your keyboard to highlight and then complete each of these checks.

I. Facts

Check these first three items while your story is on the screen:

1. Run spell-check, review suggestions and correct any actual errors.
2. Click hyperlinks.
3. Call phone numbers.

Use a printout of the story for the remaining checks:

4. Put a ruler under each line as you read the text. Underline every fact, and then double-check each one, including:

a) Names and titles of people, places and companies - Also, does each second reference (Jones) have a first reference (Mary Jones)?

b) Numbers and calculations - Do the numbers add up? Is it millions or billions? Are the percentages correct?

c) Dates and ages - Watch references to “next month/last month” when the month is changing.

d) Quotes - Are quotes accurate and properly attributed? Have you fully captured what each person meant?

e) Superlatives - What’s your source that something is the biggest, oldest, etc.?

II. Grammar

5. Check each sentence for correct use of:

a) Subject-verb agreement - Also, are you consistent in your use of either the present or the past tense to tell the story?

b) Pronoun-noun agreement.

c) Plurals and possessives.

d) Punctuation.

III. Spelling

6. Read the story backwards, checking the spelling of each word. Use a dictionary.

IV. Fairness and context

7. Terms - Define or eliminate unfamiliar terms, such as acronyms and jargon.

8. Fairness - Have all stakeholders been contacted and given a chance to talk?

9. Missing - Does the story leave any important question unanswered?

10. Context - Does the reader have the context to understand the story?

V. Your own common errors (for example, if you have a habit of getting dates wrong, misspelling names, ect.)

11. ____________________________________________

12.____________________________________________

VI. Final checks

13. Read the story aloud.

14. Have someone else read it. 

15. Accompanying elements - Run the previous checks on the story's headlines, captions, sidebars, photos, graphics, videos, interactive media and podcasts. Check for inconsistencies.