Small errors can lead to big misunderstandings Chris Davis, who was sacked as assistant minister by Campbell Newman for speaking out on doctor’s contracts, political donations and changes to the Crime and Corruption Commission, wrote a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald asking “Can Cardinal Pell be judged by 21st century standards?” He tells a personal story of his education, intended to illustrate the effect of changing times and changing circumstances, autres temps, autres mœurs as he says. He wrote: My boys’ only school was a place of great good, thanks to some exceptional teachers. I stumbled. Who are his boys, and what is it about their school relevant to George Pell’s conduct? I stopped reading. An errant apostrophe had distracted me from Davis’ message. The distracting power of errors This is a good example of how a tiny grammatical error can distract your reader from the...