Correct the account directly
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
When readers asked what had gone wrong, the editor's first reply was an evasion: it discussed the bulletin's volunteer effort without answering the question about the copied sentence. She later issued a retraction that clearly withdrew the inaccurate account and supplied the correct proposal. In retrospect, she could see that a direct comparison with the original message would have exposed the mismatch. Looking back helped her identify a useful change without altering the fact that readers had already received misleading information.
The editor removed the evasion from her follow-up and explained which draft had supplied the wrong sentence. Her retraction reached the same mailing list as the original bulletin so readers could recognize exactly what was being corrected. In retrospect, the team also noticed that its process had allowed a summary to circulate before its source was checked. They added that comparison to the next issue's review, treating the earlier mistake as something to learn from and repair rather than merely to regret.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.