Chapter ten in the textbook Feature Writing: The Pursuit of Excellence talks about how as a writer you need to be very careful in what you write about another person. If you are not sure if it is true or not, then you should not write it. You can always get in contact with the person and ask them again to see if it was right, but never publish it when you are not sure. In fact lesson number one to be learned is be careful and always check your work over and over again. The author brings up a simple point when he says, "If you've written something that appears to be libelous on the face of it, make sure you can trust your notes". I like the way he wrote about notes as if they were the reason you might mess up, as if they were trying to get you caught. He kind of personifies the idea of notes when he says this.
Another interesting thing this chapter talked about was the example on page 290 about Janet cooke who won the pulitzer prize award but had to return it because she admitted that she made the whole thing up after people became suspicious. This teaches us as writers that no matter how easy it is to sit at your computer and type away a made up story, you cannot become lazy and unmotivated. You need to get out there and find a story like everyone else in the business.
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