A publication's integrity depends on accuracy. The public expects to be reading the truth. This ranges from the correct spelling of a name to the number of votes cast to high school league sportsmanship regulations.

Writers have the first responsibility to get accurate information. They are to verify spelling, search for documents (this is certainly easier with more and more public records on the Internet), and check statements of sources against one another. Many large publications have librarians who will research databases for writers. Student writers should make friends with their school's librarians for the very same reason - in addition to good human relations, you will develop a working partnership.

Even great writers can make mistakes. E.R. Shipp, The Washington Post ombudsman, relates in his August 8 column, that in a July 28 installment of a seven-part series on George W. Bush, George Lardner reported: "'In addition to Bush ... many socially or politically prominent young men were admitted to the Air Guard, according to former officials; they included the son of then-Sen. John Tower and at least seven members of the Dallas Cowboys.' Tower had three daughters but no sons." Lardner had misunderstood a source - and added to his error by not checking his facts.

The next check on a reporter should be the page editor. Editors should edit. They are there to talk with the reporters before the reporter steps out of the door. They should be coaches to their writers. When articles are completed, they need to ask questions to be sure the writers have verified information and done their research.

Advisers might also read copy before it goes to press. They should confirm that key pieces of information and quotations are accurate.

What if the students and adults who read your publication or the agency or person about whom you wrote calls with a correction? "Errors should always be corrected. It's part of the contract we have with our readers," stated The Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie in "We Make Mistakes."

You need a procedure established for verifying information. It might even be part of the reporter/writer's and page editor's grades. Writers and editors could have an accuracy or proofreading component built into the production grade.

You need to have a policy, a plan for handling a statement of error and its correction. In every issue of Brill's Content, the six-part correction policy is stated. As number 3 states, "We will publish corrections on our own and in our own voice as soon as we are told about a mistake by anyone - our staff, an uninvolved reader, or an aggrieved reader - and can confirm the correct information." In the September 1999 issue, Content has two corrections boxes, four corrections for the June issue and nine corrections or clarifications for the July/August issue.