Journalism 341 • Editing For Publication
S(t)imulation Content
Important Notes
• The content used for each of the simulated publications comes from a variety of real sources. I have selected the copy for teaching purposes, and for that reason I may have changed it in a variety of ways. So I have changed writer's names. Even where I have kept the credit line of the original source, e.g. a news service, in no way do I intend to suggest it practices a lesser-quality journalism. But this learning environment could not exist if I did not use real materials to simulate real editing scenarios.
• When choosing content, you must treat every story / news release as if it were "live," although there might be stories you know really happened last week or last year.
• People's names within local (i.e. Rhode Island-based) stories are real names, although they may not be the names in the original story. This allows for routine fact-checking. (By the way, the names were selected randomly; no disrespect is meant to the individuals.) Business and place names also are real.
• Names -- people, places, businesses -- within wire stories and news releases are those that appeared in the original stories. Again, the usual level of fact-checking is possible. (Remember, different "rules" apply to local copy and wire copy / news releases!)
• I believe I have purged stories of outdated time elements, but as you edit, if you find one I missed, just ask me about how to handle it.