Make the last words accurate ones

People clip and save obituaries as family records. They don’t want anything to be wrong in them, and you don’t either. Check the spelling of all names, dates and places and be willing to stake your life on their being correct.

You don't want to be referred to as a writer "with a history of errors wrote hastily and failed to double-check her work" as this reporter was in this The New York Times column.

The article also accurately describes how hectic and prone to error the editing process can be.

Best way to avoid being trashed in that process? Be your own best editor. And fact checker.

Go over your work carefully before turning it in. Print out your story and underline every fact in it (names, dates, time elements). Double check all of them against your notes or reference materials (not Wikipedia) and put a "done" mark of some kind beside them. Make all corrections in the article. Read it again for continuity (did changes in time elements mess up any chronological story-telling you did?)

Turn in your story.

Rest easy.

Post admits: Fewer editors, more mistakes

While it's discouraging to read that The Washington Post has more mistakes in it these days, it's somewhat heartening that at least they admit why this is happening: The paper has cut the number of copy editors it employs.

It would be nice to think that will lead the paper to see the worth of having more sets of eyes on stories as they head into publication and that the paper would hire more editors. But that would be naive.

I read Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli's statement that a new universal desk will be "more effective" in serving print, online and mobile audiences as an edict to Post staff to "do more with less," a rationale trotted out and debunked so often of late in the newspaper industry that I would have thought it had been put out to pasture.

Guess not.

I'm not encouraged by the hope of Andrew Alexander, the article's author, that readers show "some patience and understanding."

Why blogs go belly up

Thinking about making your way into the publishing world by blogging? Read this article first.

This excerpt gives you an idea of the state, and perhaps nature, of blogging:

"According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled."

Public-records laws more restrictive in the UK

From 1741 to 1744, Samuel Johnson basically made up what were purportedly debates going on in the British Parliament. Because the doings of Parliament were secret, Johnson had to rely on the skimpy notes of someone who had lurked in the background of the parliament building scribbling surreptitiously. It was also illegal to print what was said in Parliament so Johnson's writings were couched in the supposed fiction of events taking place in the "Senate of Lilliput."

Surely things are much better almost 400 years later, right? Maybe not.

To get an idea of the state of public information in the UK and how it compares to the United States, have a look at Eric Nalder's story of a reporter who learned the ropes on public documents and Freedom of Information in Washington state, at the University of Washington and the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Some advice all newspapers could follow

Deborah Howell ends her three-year run as readers' advocate at the Washington Post soon, and she offers 10 pieces of advice on how to keep the paper strong. It's written just for the Post, but many newspapers could take heed.

Laura pointed this article out to me and said she thought No. 5 would make me smile. Make me smile? I stood up, saluted Ms. Howell and gave a hearty cheer.

This might help clear up your writing

In searching across cyberspace for good advice on bringing clarity to writing, I found this excellent site. Does a great job of analyzing writing samples to show what brings the fog into some sentences and what keeps it out of others.

I highly recommend it to your attention.

Many scenarios seen for journalism's future

Jeff Jarvis rolls out some possible scenarios for the future of journalism in his Buzz Machine blog. Be sure to read the comments as well.

Wonder what's in the picture at the top of his blog? That's a printing press.