Frank Fee, the University of North Carolina
- Do the math. It’s always surprising how many errors could be avoided if we would just do the calculations suggested by what we are writing about.
- Check a map when describing a site, route, etc. Even when you think you know the area. Especially when you don’t know the area.
- Do spot checks.
- Find the first reference to a person in copy. Make sure you have a first name and title.
- Be more careful than ever. Don’t assume that somebody else has caught it. The person who spots an error and doesn’t take some action has just negotiated the publication into an embarrassing, possibly costly, bind.
- Never disregard a question that has been raised… by another reader, in or out of the newsroom or by that small, sometimes indistinct voice in the back of your head. Listen to your voices.
- Never assume anything. No copy editor should be afraid to call a reporter late at night with a serious and substantive question, and no reporter should chew out the caller for trying to avoid an accident with their copy.
- A one-sided or one-source story is not a complete story and can never be accurate.
- Never rationalize or analyze to justify a result. The reader won’t. Everything we put in the publication must be instantly clear to the reader who hasn’t the time or inclination for deep structural analysis.
- Anything that looks odd is worth a double-check, even if it appears somebody already has done that.
- Beware of superlatives. “The biggest,” “the best,” “the smallest,” “the worst,” often ain’t. Check it out.
- Look at the photo when writing a caption or editing one.
- Never trust a PR person’s word on spelling or other facts. PR people may shade the truth in varying degrees.
- Truth is not a matter of frequencies or consensus. At the slightest doubt or on the smallest evidence that something might be wrong, check it out.
- Read your own publication every time it comes out.
- Check what’s happened to your stories. Analyze any correction you see. Ask: How did the error occur? How could it have been avoided? What would I do next time?
- Dial any phone number you intend to publish after you’ve typed it into the story. Check URLs and e-mail addresses too.
- Go back and read the full sentence if you’ve changed a word or two in copy. Be sure you haven’t introduced an error.
- There is a hierarchy of sources. One or two will be the best of all possible exponents on the subject at hand. Use them.