Sleep: Overall,Great! (But Some Fatals, Too)

I'm very, very happy to say the "sleep" assignment may have been the best overall assignment of the year for this class. Lotsa grades in the 3.0 range -- half the class scored a 3.5 or above! -- lotsa strong ledes, lotsa on-point nut grafs, good use of quotes, all that.

Still some issues, though. First, two people did not turn in the assignment. The worst thing we can do in journalism -- even worse than getting a fatal -- is to blow off an assignment. A newspaper can't go to print with blank spots in the pages, and a 30-minute newscast can't to to air without content that fills up all 30 minutes. That means in the media business, you can never miss a deadline.

And yes, assignments that are not done will have a much more severe impact on your final grade than fatals will, and if I have to use a tie-breaker in determining your final grade, the first categories I will be unexcused absences and tardies and whether you blew off any assignments, since those things tell me how seriously you are taking this class.

The more you tell me you are unreliable as a journalist by skipping assignments and not showing up without a valid excuse, the more I will recognize that in your final grade. I can work with you if you give me an assignment that's not up to snuff -- and so can an editor in a real-world setting -- but I can't work with nothing, and I can't work with you if you're not here. Neither can your future bosses.

Second, let's make sure we're using proper attribution. In most stories, after the lede and nut graf each paragraph should have some sort of attribution. And in a single-source story like this one, it wouldn't hurt for every graf, period, to have attribution.

Third, let's make sure in attribution, we're just using said. You don't have to say so-and-so explained or so-and-so remarked or so-and-so says or whatever. Just say so-and-so said, every time.

Fourth, remember that if you are adding attribution after a quote, the quote ends with a comma, then he closed quote mark, then said in lower case, like this: "You guys are awesome," said Omar Sofradzija.

Fifth, there is no need to start or end a sentence with ellipses, since what is actually being quoted by you is uninterrupted.

What I mean is, if you're using this quote ...

"And so I think I am going to kill Mickey Mouse and I want him to die."

... and I just want to use the part that says, "I think I am going to kill Mickey Mouse," then my quote does NOT need any ellipses, and will look like this ...

"I think I am going to kill Mickey Mouse."

... and NOT this ...

"... I think I am going to kill Mickey Mouse ..."

... or this ...

"I think I am going to kill Mickey Mouse ..."

... or even this ...

"... I think I am going to kill Mickey Mouse."

Why no ellipses? Because the quote fragment you use is uninterrupted and in context. We use ellipses when we take something out of the middle of a quote we're using. Not the beginning or end.

Sixth, let's remember that in a first reference we use both a first and last name,but in subsequent references we use just the last name.That means the first time you refer to Diana Gant as just that, but from then on it's just Gant.

Seventh, let's remember to avoid using first-person references outside of quotes, like we or us or me. Using first-person references go against the idea that journalists are neutral observers. If we are just observing and outside of the news story, then there can't be a we or us or I.

Instead, use more specific descriptors. For example, if Gant is talking about how people can sleep better, say just that: people, not we.

Moving on; unfortunately, we also had some fatals.

In two cases, we spelled the last name of the professor, Diana Gant, as Grant, with an "r" in there.

This is an instance where it's possible spell check actually inserted an error into our work. How?

Well, gant is not a word in the dictionary. So if we ran spell check, it probably would have told you to change it to grant, which is a word. If we weren't really paying attention in running spell check and we simply agreed with all recommended changes, then this sort of thing could have resulted.

I know I've said it a million times, but here I go again: spell check is a supplement to -- but never a substitute for -- checking a story fact by fact, name by name and line by line.

There's no short-cuts to this, folks.