Missing: Overall

Generally nice work on this assignment. Most people scored in the 3.0 range and up. And no fatals! Keep up your fact-checking habits.

And let's make sure we're giving ourselves a cushion in meeting deadlines. One person came within just 82 seconds of missing their deadline, according to the time stamp on the email.

(Please keep in mind; the official time is the time at which I receive it, according to the email time stamp. It's not necessarily the time you sent it. So, the closer you send to the deadline, the more likely it is to miss being received in time)

And a missed deadline -- even if it's just one second late -- is an automatic fatal.

Again, that's not to be a dick. Rather, in journalism we always have to meet our deadlines, since our news products are deadline-based. Ever see the 11 p.m. news start out with "Hey, our scripts aren't ready; tune back in a minute or two"?

Me neither. That's because we get into good habits that allow us to NEVER, EVER miss a deadline, or even send something right at deadline (because an anchor can't read a script starting at exactly 11 p.m. if it's also sent at exactly 11 p.m.).

Our jobs simply don't allow it.

I never received stories from two people. That's an automatic 0.0. And again, in journalism it's totally unacceptable.

Even if you turn in the worst piece of crap ever, as long as it makes deadline and has no fact errors it's far more preferable than filing nothing.

Two reasons for that: first, an editor can work with a piece of crap and massage it to life, but an editor can't work with nothing.

Second, regardless of how bad a story may be, a story on a newsworthy topic must be filed and shared with the audience. If there's a football game, the audience is going to expect a football game story after the game, period. You don't have a choice of not offering one.

And the page in the newspaper and the air time on the news show have to be filled. You can't just run a blank space or dead air.

Not turning something in at all is the quickest way to lose your job in this biz. That's why I'm strict on this rule in this class, to reinforce the point while the stakes are fairly low (an assignment grade) as opposed to you learning it when the stakes are high (your job and career).

Let's get this right every time, folks.