On 12/18/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 12/19/06, zero 0000 <nought_0000(a)yahoo.com>
wrote:
On the other hand, even though "Legal
experts have stated
that Y [cite][cite]" is clearly valid, it doesn't properly convey
what the sources indicate. There ought to be some way to
record that a standard legal database did not provide ANY
contrary opinions. Given how much lawyers love to argue
with each other, this is a highly unusual situation.
I think a better way to handle some of these issues is to accept that
straying into the grey area of OR is unavoidable, so let's come up
with good ways to do it. "The consensus of academic opinion in X
database appears to indicate that" is better than "The consensus of
academic opinion in X database is that", for example.
"Appears that", "is probably" etc are key words that indicate to the
reader that the interpreter is us, and therefore not very reliable. We
have a similar situation when we need to indicate that *we* (the
nameless, voiceless writer) don't actually know something: "Whether
there are other species with these characteristics is not known" can
be a bit ambiguous (who doesn't know it - scientists, or us, the
laypeople).
Actually, that's making things worse; we're now using weasel words
("appears that", "probably is") to cover our original research
("the
consensus is"). If we only have primary sources, then we say what the
primary sources say. If we have a secondary source that says "the
consensus of legal opinion is", then great. If not, then *we* cannot
become that secondary source that draws that conclusion, partly
because we're not experts in this field, but mostly because it's
original research. Remember, the second you say "the consensus is",
you need to be able to state exactly who considers there to be a
"consensus". Otherwise you are "introducing an analysis or synthesis
of established facts, ideas, opinions, or arguments in a way that
builds a particular case favored by the editor, without attributing
that analysis or synthesis to a reputable source."
Jay.