Worked example · English · Year 10
DCF: Producing → Evaluating and improving digital content
A completed grid, check list and rewrite for the Llanbedr bridge stimulus. It doubles as your mark scheme. Show it after pupils have finished the grid — the second column is the part they will otherwise copy.
| Question | Report A — Chronicle | Report B — Llanbedr Voice | Report C — aggregator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who wrote it? | Nia Hopkin, local democracy reporter — a named person with a named job | "Admin". No person is accountable for it | "NewsWalesDaily" — an account name, not a journalist |
| When? | 14 March 06:00, updated 11:20. It shows its corrections | No date at all, so you cannot tell what it knew when | 15 March 21:47 — a day after the council statement it says does not exist |
| Where do the numbers come from? | The council's highways report, published 12 March: 8 weeks, £1.4m, 4km, £900k grant | "Up to 80%" and "four times worse" are attributed to nobody | £14m, two years, 40km — sourced to "local reports" |
| Most emotive phrase | "Nobody wants an eight-week closure in spring" — and it is in quotation marks, attributed to a councillor | "THEY ARE CLOSING OUR BRIDGE AND NOBODY ASKED YOU" | "cut in half" |
| Are people who disagree quoted? | Yes — Sioned Pugh fears a third off takings, two other traders expect little change | No. Two anonymous residents who agree with each other | No named person at all |
| Is the image what it claims? | No image used | No image used | No — it is a 2016 stock photograph of a bridge in Yorkshire, captioned "The Old Bridge yesterday" |
| One provably false claim | None found. Every figure is traceable to the published report | "The council refused to comment" — Cllr Rees gave a quotation on 13 March | "Bridge collapses" — the inspection found cracking; the bridge is still open to pedestrians |
| Trust score /5 | 4 — sourced, dated, both sides, shows an update. Not perfect: only three traders were asked | 1 — no date, no author, no sources, one provably false claim | 0 — false headline, stolen photograph, and every figure inflated tenfold |
Evidences criteria 1 and 2: all three are judged on the same eight questions, and every cell quotes words or numbers rather than describing the writer's motives.
| What I would check | Where |
|---|---|
| Whether the inspection report really says eight weeks and £1.4m | Bryn Hir Council's website — Report A says it was published on 12 March, so it should be findable |
| Whether the photograph in Report C is of the Old Bridge | A reverse image search; also compare it with any picture on the council's page |
| Whether the council commented before 15 March | The council's press releases, and Report A's 13 March quotation from Cllr Rees |
| Whether any other outlet reports a collapse | BBC News Wales and one other regional outlet — a collapsed bridge would not be covered by one aggregator alone |
| Where Report B's "80% of businesses" figure comes from | Ask the site for its source; check whether any trade body or council survey exists. A statistic with no origin is not a statistic |
Evidences criterion 4: each check is something a pupil could genuinely do in ten minutes, and the place to do it is named.
Headline: Eight-week closure for cracked Llanbedr bridge — but walkers and cyclists can still cross
The Old Bridge over the Afon Wen will shut to vehicles from Monday 25 March for about eight weeks while two cracked arches are repaired, according to a highways report published by Bryn Hir Council on 12 March. The council puts the cost at £1.4m, £900,000 of it from a Welsh Government transport grant, and says the diversion between Llanbedr-ar-Fryn and Pentre Isaf will add roughly 4km to a journey. The bridge has not collapsed and stays open to people on foot and on bicycles. Traders disagree about the impact: one bakery owner told the Llanbedr Chronicle takings could fall by a third, while two other businesses expected little change. The consultation closes on 21 March.
What I removed, and why: I cut the word "collapses", the £14m, the two-year timescale, the 40km detour and the photograph, because the first is contradicted by the inspection, the three figures are each exactly ten times the published ones with no source given, and the picture is a 2016 stock image of a bridge in Yorkshire.
Evidences criterion 3 — two false claims (the collapse and the inflated figures) are named and corrected — and criterion 5: 120 words, every number attributed to the council or the Chronicle, and the headline still has a reason to be read.