Legal Advice   

Newspaper lawyer Alice Neff Lucan offers this advice in the light of recent court decisions:

* If you use a tape recorder, listen to it to verify quotes.
* Corrections of grammar, syntax, stuttering and filling in explanatory words are all acceptable changes to quotations.
* It is acceptable to edit out irrelevancies and wandering.
* It is acceptable to substitute words, without changing the meaning.
* If you do make changes, consider the whole. Have you conveyed accurately what you think the person meant to say?