LeeAnn remains certain — as she has been since her stunning loss in the third-grade spelling bee — that “tragedy” should be spelled with a “j.” She rose from the ashes of her defeat to achieve academic excess: two majors as an undergraduate, two master’s degrees and a Rhodes Scholar nomination.

In what appears to be a classic case of overcompensation, she has become a highly skilled and experienced writer, editor and proofreader. Despite her credentials, LeeAnn’s campaign for “trajedy” has, like her support of serial commas, fallen on hard times.

Following the Word Jones grammarian tradition, Susan also experienced a stunning disqualification in a third-grade spelling test for innocently reviewing the paper of a classmate she had been coaching to certain victory.

This seminal injustice has driven her lifelong crusade to remedy word-based inaccuracies and iniquities wherever they are found. Her quest to encounter every word in the English language led to 14 years in colleges and universities and resulted in a largely unused vocabulary of arcane terms in architecture, astronomy, ethnobotany, linguistics, ornithology… you get the point. She also absconded with a degree in nonfiction writing and a secret handshake from Phi Beta Kappa. Susan works with university presses around the country, applying her meticulous skills to such well-reviewed titles as The Handbook of the Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest. She works from her home office, where she is perfecting the all-day pajama.

Home video footage of a children's play contains evidence of Brynna's early knack for word work: In it, she not only delivers her own lines; she noticeably mouths everyone else's as well.

A couple decades later, she's less of a showoff, but she hasn't lost an ounce of zeal for creative work. She writes, reads, cooks and crafts with gusto, and even spent a few years as the keyboardist for a reggae band. Upon realizing her long-held affinity for assonance and ampersands—and, clearly, alliteration—wasn't going to go away, Brynna left a career in zoo keeping (er, teaching) to return to her first love: words, and lots of them.

In an era when the “business card” that really counts is your website, James is a valuable asset for Word Jones clients. His graphic arts/Web design background enables a delicate, essential balancing act between capable Web geek and savvy layout artist.

Not only are his sites (including this one) navigable and glitch-free, but they look good, too. James would probably make a handsome living playing soccer if he didn't love Web work so darned much. See some more of his work at www.JamesLTurner.com.

It's probably good that someone who is absolutely compelled to line things up, add white space and tweak copy found a professional outlet for her neurosis; otherwise she'd go 'round the bend every time she looked at a bad billboard or a voter's pamphlet.

Sarah has built a stellar career as a designer, with experience that includes working for small agencies, big corporations and herself. She has the valuable ability to take a project from initial concept to beautiful finished product, working solo or as part of a collaborative team. When not fretting over kerning she's wrangling her two kids, exploring the Oregon wilds and then wrangling her two kids some more.

Julia possesses an exceedingly rare and valuable trait for a P.R. professional: the ability to get people to do whatever she wants even as they’re duly impressed at how nice she is.

Her father identified this gift early in her life, calling it “Irish diplomacy.” (His explanation: “You can tell people to go to h***, and not only will they do it, they’ll enjoy the trip!”) You can imagine this comes in handy as she pitches product reviews and story placements and follows up on press releases. Julia is tireless and fearless as she makes and uses her connections within a given industry. She has a degree in communications and 10 years of experience getting paid to get people to do what she wants.