Good letter and a suitable acknowledgement.
“Washington Post editor and book critic Ron Charles tweeted this photo of colleague Dennis Drabelle holding up a correction letter he received from elementary school students in Bethesda, Maryland, calling it “our favorite correction letter ever.”
The letter, penned by “Mrs. Reed’s fifth-grade class,” takes issue with an article Drabelle wrote back in April, just before the Titanic’s centennial, which incorrectly states that the ship’s fateful collision with the iceberg occurred on April 15th.
“Based on our research,” the students wrote on a supersized piece of paper, “the Titanic hit the iceberg shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912.”
“Isn’t that letter adorable?” Ron Charles rhetorically asked Poynter. “Most of the correction letters begin with some kind of irate statement, ‘Isn’t anyone reading the paper over there?’ This was a nice change of pace.”
Drabelle said he responded to the letter, thanking the students for being “diligent and friendly.” A correction is reportedly forthcoming, and photos the fifth graders sent along with their letter may be reproduced in the Post’s kids section, KidsPost.
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