Re: trusting one's sources

["Lora M Beene" <lorab -at- simplywritten -dot- com>]

That is why I like to use the anonymous ones like the following!

God, grant me the Senility
To forget the people
I never liked anyway,
The good fortune
To run into the ones I do,
And the eyesight
To tell the difference.

AMEN

Sometime, somewhere, someone has said it...like I just did.  : )

Now the question of how sure can you be about your source is a valid one.
The have said for years that George Washington cut down an apple tree, but
now they say "new" information says he didn't. It is the same for any source
in a documented piece of material. If you can show that it is at least
documented somewhere else then at least another person believes the fact,
quote, etc to be true. There are always two sides to a story, but we would
never get anything done if we always had to pick which was right and which
was wrong.

How do we know what is "historically" right and what's not? I'm not sure we
can, but research always helps, IF you have the time. I am a History major
and have heard tons of different kinds of  "stories," and "truths," but I
have no time to make sure they are correct. That will come in when I get to
grad school, but that doesn't mean I can't question it now. Since I am a
tech writer at this point though I don't have that leisure either. So just
pick what you think describes you or you like or what's needed for a
document. Then hope to goodness your boss cares more about your steps than
your quotes or that friends don't think you are totally off your rocker with
something off the wall in your sig. : )

Just my few cents worth.

As always,

Lora M Beene
Vice Admiral of Learning
317.562.9298
www.simplywritten.com
Check our website for information on Clustar (tm) Structured Writing classes
being given May 23-24, June 21-22, September 27-28, November 8-9, and
January 24-25, 2001
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Wilcox" <jwilcox -at- tcsi -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 12:31 PM
Subject: trusting one's sources


> John Posada wrote (in his sig):
>
> > Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
> >      Benjamin Franklin
>
> Did Ben really say that?  How do we know?  I did a search and found over
400
> hits, but I don't intend to check out every one looking for proof that he
DIDN'T
> say it.  (I seriously doubt that he did say it, because 1) it sounds very
> contemporary, and 2) he wasn't known for such silliness.)
>
> But this got me to thinking about the larger issue.  It seems very common
to
> simply trust a cited source without checking out.  I'm probably as guilty
of
> this as most people.  For instance, take the quote in my sig.  I have no
idea
> who Geri Weizman is or whether she actually said it.  Suppose I wrote in
my sig:
> "You can take away all of a person's rights by removing them one at a
time. --
> Franklin Roosevelt"  Would you think he did or didn't say that, and why or
why
> not?
>
> If the publication from which a quote is taken is given, we can check it
out.
> Otherwise, we're left to either blindly believe or disbelieve.  Comments?
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> John Wilcox - Senior Technical Writer, TCSI Corp., Bothell, Washington USA
> Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of. -- Geri Weitzman
>
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