In an interview on Terry Gross' "Fresh Air," Jon Stewart defends discipline in the pursuit of creativity - and he explains why "The Daily Show" fact checks.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Teaching

This collection of assignments covers the range of copy editing tasks.

DOWNLOADS: Mission statement No. 1 Mission statement No. 2

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Content, Ethics, Teaching, Writing

The survey said ... well, no, there's no survey in this classroom version of the TV feud. But students get much better answers.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Teaching

OK, so no one actually dies because of this test, but it has led to the death of a lot of bad habits.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Teaching

Food is a good motivator, but money - even fake money - is even better. The contributor of this idea wants it known that it may not be original to her, but good ideas are meant to be shared, right?

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Teaching

When students don't know key aspects of the past, they can't full understand the present. Here's a week-by-week guide to instilling some cultural literacy in our students.

DOWNLOADS: Web sites.doc

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, History, Teaching

Checking facts is serious business, so here's a way to help students learn to enjoy it.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Content, Teaching

Beginning each class with a mini-quiz that's based on real stories - and then engaging students in a conversation about what went wrong and why - can set an inquisitive tone for the rest of the day.

DOWNLOADS: Tom Clanin's mini-editing quizzes

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Content, Quizzes, Teaching

An exercise to motivate students to be critical readers and sharper editors.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Teaching

First, assign students to blog once a week about editing. Then, make them edit their own posts. (It's kinda like making them edit their own e-mails, but not as cruel.)

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Online, Teaching, Writing

Regret the Error has a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Craig Silverman, a freelance writer in Montreal, trolls the world's media looking for its mistakes. And sadly, he finds them - lots of them. He keeps his commentary to a minimum (the mistakes usually speak for themselves), and he often provides a link to the original source. His column and collection, which used to be standalone website, has joined Poynter.org, which is where this link goes.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy

Paul Walsh, a Minneapolis Star Tribune copy editor, thought that the details in the wire photo's caption were a little thin. So he went to work getting more information - and by the time he was done, his paper not only had a complete caption, but quite possibly the only accurate one in the country. This "If you ran the newspaper" column, which appeared on Page 25A of the Star Tribune on Feb. 17, 2002, was written by Lou Gelfand, who at the time was the paper's reader representative. Paul Walsh is now an assigning editor.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Best practices, Cutlines

When the Chicago Tribune misidentified a top Tribune executive in an obituary, the resulting "meltdown" led the paper to adopt procedures that reduced the error rate. Watch as editor Margaret Holt explains what the newsroom did and get advice and strategies from around the country. It's one of nine sessions at Editing the Future.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Best practices, Management

Everyone is their own first editor, and it can be the hardest job of all. This exercise will give your students practice editing themselves.

DOWNLOADS: An editing journal

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Content, Headlines, Teaching, Writing

Just because it�s online doesn�t always mean it�s true � and sometimes it does.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Teaching

The ability to spot a mistake is key for a copy editor. These exercises can help sharpen a student's eye.

DOWNLOADS: Stop the presses! Typos in the wild

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Language, Teaching

Poynter was created in 1975 by Nelson Poynter, chairman of the St. Petersburg Times. In 1978, he donated his controlling stock in Times Publishing Co. to the institute, which has become perhaps the industry's largest independent, nonprofit school for journalists.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Coaching, Cutlines, Design, Display type, Diversity, Ethics, Graphics, Headlines, Language, Management, Online, Photos, Training, Writing

ACES was created by and for copy editors in large part to help them improve their skills and advance their careers. Training is at the heart of the organization's goals.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy, Content, Cutlines, Design, Ethics, Graphics, Headlines, Language, Photos, Training

On Aug. 9, 2000, the Nevada Appeal ran the wrong photo of a mayoral candidate. So chagrined was the paper's editor that the next day he wrote this article apologizing - and telling readers that they wouldn't have to pay for that edition.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy

Staffers at the Detroit Free Press pulled together a list of tips on how to make sure the facts are right. For example, try circling the names in the story AFTER you've checked the spelling.

List All Study Tools of the Trade Tagged with: Accuracy