10 examples will test your editing skills…

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

Yes, that’s part of an e-mail circulating the globe, indicating that poor spelling usually doesn’t interfere with our ability to communicate. Get most of it right, and people will understand.

Still, as many of you frequently point out, it’s the little language mistakes that cast doubt on the accuracy of everything else in the newspaper.

Here’s a test, composed of items sent in…

The media owe answers …

The report released Tuesday by the congressional investigation into the postal service scandal is conclusive regarding the scheme denounced by Congressman Roberto Jefferson in June. The document has the value of putting together information collected up to now, but is not so conclusive that it won’t allow for various interpretations.

The opposition is sure that the accusation is proved. Supporters of the administration maintain the position they held previously that there was improper use of a slush fund, but it was an isolated case and that the story of the “allowance”(allegations of payments to support…

The whole story on military recruiting?…

Numbers aren’t just facts. They can be interpreted in many ways, even if they come from the same or similar sources.

Ann Scott Tyson, a respected military reporter just back from Iraq, wrote in a front-page story Nov. 4 that “newly released Pentagon demographic data show that the military is leaning heavily for recruits on economically depressed rural areas where youths’ need for jobs may outweigh the risks of going to war.”

The story said that more than 44 percent of military recruits come from rural areas, most from the South and West. “Many . . . are…

A story that merits page one…

For 31 Minnesota families, this day will be anything but joyous.

For those families, this is a holiday with a hole, a day grievously altered by the loss of a son, spouse or parent to the war in Iraq.

As Minnesotans of different political beliefs have contacted me this year, arguing in the strongest terms about which stories on the Iraq war belong on page one, there is one thing that brings them to quick agreement. They feel deeply for these families in their loss and want the state’s largest newspaper to reflect that sentiment. They believe stories…

We’ve got your number: Now, it’s sudoku every day…

Sudoku, the numbers-logic game from Asia that has taken the English-speaking world by storm, brings dozens of calls each week from fans who want the puzzle seven days a week in The Tribune.

A Google search for the word sudoku shows there are more than 11.6 million pages in English that deal with the devilishly clever squares.

“Please, please, please” you asked.

“You get what you desire,” is the answer from Michael Anastasi, The Tribune’s managing editor for sports and features.

You may put the paper down for a minute while you jump for joy and scream like a…

In good Portuguese…

The number of readers who write to the ombudsman complaining about Portuguese mistakes in Folha has increased. Last year, there were 65 such messages. This year, through Friday, there were 166. The complaints mainly pointed out errors of agreement, crasis (contraction of two vowels into one), and spelling. “The number of mistakes in Portuguese in Folha’s stories is incredible,” reader Dirce Pranzetti wrote in November. “I already got used to so many vulgarisms, but … it was difficult to accept one accent in place of another.”

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The most mistakes are made in newspaper editorials; they…

Involve parents, but teach kids…

First, let us stipulate what everyone agrees: that parent involvement is a key factor in student achievement.

From there, though, it’s always seemed to me a dodge of monumental proportions to suggest that children can’t learn if their parents aren’t involved in their education. Yet studies have been cited to bolster that view, which at its extreme suggests that there’s little we can do for kids who lack the much-ballyhooed parental backing.

Thus a recent study of low-income public schools in California may have garnered far too little notice. The study found that several factors other than…

Public had right to know details of Vernon Jones case…

She said it was rape. He said it was a consensual sexual encounter. As is often the case with such incidents, the public may never know what happened almost a year ago in the home of DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones.

What we do know is that a long criminal investigation resulted from the rape allegation. When DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming announced she was dropping that investigation because Jones’ accuser wanted to avoid further trauma to herself and her family, I heard from a few readers who believed it was time for this…

Homer math catches up with the news…

Among the hundreds of corrections that crossed my desk this year en route to their home on Page 2, one didn’t make it. It’s still right here, buried until recently under a pile of papers.

So even though the story that contained the error is two months old, I owe it to my conscience to set the record straight — and tell a larger truth about the paper and its readers.

It began with a charming little article Oct. 15 by staff writer Steve Rubenstein that told how three writers for “The Simpsons” TV show — all…

Words matter when stature is at stake…

It was a brief item–just two sentences, 53 words–on Page 16 of the Tribune on Saturday, Oct. 22. But for Jeanne Bishop it may as well have been the lead story on Page 1 of the big Sunday paper, because it involved her professional reputation.

“From now on whenever someone Googles my name, this is going to come up,” she said during a visit to my office on Monday. She pointed to a photocopy of the Oct. 22 item. The first of four items under the heading “Updates,” it read:

Attorney probed: The Cook County public defender’s office…