Corrections Noted at the Foot of the Article

Something in the article is wrong

Every publisher gets something wrong eventually. A name is misspelled, a date is a year out, a price changed the week the article went up.

A reader emails to point it out. The tempting response is to change the words, say nothing, and hope nobody noticed.

That fixes the page for the next reader. It does nothing for the readers who already saw it, quoted it or acted on it.

Why a quiet edit backfires

People who read the first version carry the error with them. Some repeated it in an email, a newsletter or a post of their own, and they have no way of knowing it changed.

Those who return find different words with no explanation. A silent change looks like an attempt to hide the mistake, even when it was an honest slip.

And the reader who reported it sees no acknowledgement. They are the person most likely to help again, and the least likely to after being ignored.

What counts as a correction

• A wrong fact: a name, date, figure, price or place.
• A quotation attributed to the wrong person, or worded wrongly.
• A credit for a photograph or idea given to the wrong source.
• A missing word that reverses the meaning of a sentence.
• A caption naming the wrong person or place.

The fourth is easy to miss because the sentence still reads smoothly. A dropped "not" in a sentence about safety, prices or eligibility changes what people do, and deserves a note as much as a wrong name.

What does not need a note

Spelling, punctuation and grammar that do not change the meaning can be fixed quietly. Readers do not need a dated record of a missing comma.

News that moves on is different again. When a story develops after publication, add an update with its own date, labelled as an update, so nobody mistakes new information for an admission of error.

Writing the note

Put the note at the foot of the article, dated, in plain words: what was wrong, and what is right.

For example: "Correction, February 10, 2015: An earlier version of this article gave the wrong year for the organ's installation. It was installed in 1908."

Keep it short and factual. No grovelling, no excuses, and no repeating a damaging claim in full; describe it instead.

Where the error could cost a reader money or safety, a wrong price or a wrong deadline, put a note at the top as well, so nobody acts on the old version before scrolling down.

Fix the text, keep the address

Correct the sentence itself. A note beneath an uncorrected paragraph leaves readers to do the fixing in their heads.

If the error is in the headline, change the headline but leave the page's address alone, since every link and share points to it. Where the address itself contains the error, set up a permanent redirect from the old one.

Keep the original publication date and show the correction date beside it. Fetch as Google, in Webmaster Tools, can then ask Google to read the page again, so search results catch up sooner.

Copies you can still reach

An article travels further than its page. List where it went and correct what you control.

Edit social posts where the network allows it. Twitter does not, so reply to your own tweet with the correction and the link. A newsletter that has gone out cannot be recalled, but the next issue can carry one line.

Email anyone who quoted or linked to the error, with the correct wording. Many will update their copy when asked, and they would never have known otherwise.

A worked example

A pipe organ builder with a workshop in an industrial park restores and maintains instruments in churches and concert halls, and writes a short article about each finished project.

One article said a church's organ was built in 1912 by a firm from another province. A local historian emailed: the organ dated from 1908, and the builder was different.

The workshop corrected the paragraph that afternoon and said nothing. Months later, the church's anniversary booklet repeated the wrong date and builder, copied from the parish newsletter that had quoted the original article.

The historian, rereading the page, found the text changed without acknowledgement and asked what else had been revised quietly.

The builder added a dated correction at the foot, sent the parish office the right details with an apology, and added a line to its own next newsletter.

It also published a one-paragraph corrections policy and an invitation to report errors at the end of every article. The historian has since sent two smaller corrections, both handled the same way.

Make errors easy to report

Readers spot most errors before the publisher does. Give them an easy way to say so: a line at the end of each article with an email address for corrections.

Reply to every report, even the mistaken ones, and thank the people who were right. The ones who write in are your most careful readers.

Write the policy down

A corrections policy for a small publisher fits in one paragraph: what you correct, how, where notes appear, who decides, and how fast.

Publish it on the site, perhaps on the about page. It tells readers you take accuracy seriously, and it settles arguments in the office before they start.

The counter-case

Some pages are not articles. A guide meant to stay current, such as opening hours or a price list, is simply kept up to date, with a last updated date rather than a trail of correction notes.

And a site that publishes rarely may go years without needing the policy. Even so, the first serious error is easier to handle with a rule already written.

For anything published as an article and read by people, fix the text, note the change with its date, and correct the copies you can reach.

The policy in seven lines

1. Fix the error in the text itself.
2. Add a dated note at the foot of the article.
3. Say what was wrong and what is right.
4. Keep the page's address unchanged.
5. Correct shared copies you control.
6. Write to anyone who quoted the original.
7. Thank whoever reported it.

Step three is the heart of it. A note that only says the article was updated tells readers nothing; one that says what was wrong lets them correct what they carried away.

Quoting other people's posts accurately in the first place is covered in embedding a tweet instead of copying it.

Frequently asked questions

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