Author____________________
Name of Editor______________
Period___________
Investigative Journalism Checklist: Self and Peer Editing and Revising
Feature
Headline (brief and to the point, making reader want to read on)
Sub-heading (a sentence to add more information to the heading)
Lead sentence (Captures your attention)
Main paragraphs (Who, When What Why, Where or How did it all happen)
Quotes (From interviewees and sources)
 All direct quotes have quotation marks (“__”) around them
 All quotes have a dialogue tag to show who said them
o Examples
 “ __ ,” Ms. Hill commented
 Ms. Lanier stated, “______”
 According to New York Times, “___”
Closing paragraph (what does it all mean for the readers)
Illustrations (photo or drawing to illustrate the story)
Captions (a sentence to explain the illustration)
Anecdotes (information relevant to your article/a story within your story)
 Enlivens an article
 Humanizes it
 Brings an entertainment element to an article
Formal Language and legible font (11 or 12 point)
Bibliography
 At least three informational sources
 At least five interviews sources
Grammar
Capitalization (Correct Capitalization)
 Beginning of each sentence
 Proper nouns
 Initials (U.N. for United Nations)
 Months of the year
 Names of cities, streets, towns
 People’s names
Periods
 End of sentence
 After an abbreviation (Mr.)
 After an initial (J. Smith)
Question Marks
 At the end of a questioning sentence
Exclamation Points
 At the end of a sentence or a word that shows excitement/emphasis
Commas
 Items in a series
 Between city and state, day and year
 Before the conjunction In a compound sentence
 After a dependent clause or introductory element
Apostrophes
 in contractions
 to show possession (Joe’s dog)
Sentences are complete thoughts and contain a noun and a verb.
 No run-on sentences
Spelling is correct.
Tick box
Self
Peer
Comments
Tick box
Self
Peer
Comments