CO N T E STA N T N U M B E R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

C O PY E D I T I N G C O N T E S T PA RT 3 : S A M P L E N E WS B R I E F A N SW E R

Editing is not a precise science. Reward students for imagination and creativity. If two students tie, the student who does better in editing the news brief (part 3) in the opinion of the judges should be placed higher.

To cut costs, Texas State University System officials have an idea for

future students busy with families and jobs: Don’t even show up on

campus for your freshman year.

Starting next fall, system officials said they plan to encourage

nontraditional students to take free massive open online courses —

MOOCs — before arriving on campus. Students who take and pass 10

courses could show up at school with a year’s work complete before

paying a single tuition bill.

“We want as many tools for students as we can give,” Texas State

University System Chancellor Brian McCall said at a press conference

Sept. 9. “We thought this was a particularly good one for older, busy,

driven and disciplined students.”

System administrators have not set many expectations for the

program. McCall said he has no idea how many will sign up or

actually receive credit. But he said he is thrilled to give students the

opportunity.

Modified from an article in the Texas Tribune, “Free freshman year? Texas State hopes to try it out” by Matthew Watkins, Sept. 10, 2015.https://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/10/free-freshman-year-texas-state-will-try-it-out/

As a general rule, the “System” or “School” or whatever can’t do something. People, officials, administrators, etc. do things.

Watch the spelling of names. Few things will damage a publication’s credibility worse than misspelling a person’s name.

Follow AP style rules for dates. Avoid use of today except in direct quotes. See entries on days, dates, months and years. Within the same year, don’t include the year.

Avoid vague words like “many,” “recent” and “few.”