[WikiEN-l] Qualifiers (was: Stating Judgements)

[Poor, Edmund W]

Geoff,

I'm chiming in to agree with Jimbo, and to give a few illustrations of a simple way to attribute point of view. 

I understand that this is a serious problem. Please don't think I'm taking it too light-heartedly if I suggest that the solution is very simple.

In a word: use qualifiers.

What are qualifiers? They are words that qualify (or attribute) points of view. Here are some examples.

Change:
* Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is considered the finest...
To:
* Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is _widely_ considered the finest...

Change:
* Tolstoy's two novels... are considered to be his best.
To:
* Tolstoy's two novels... are considered _by many_ to be his best.

The next requires a slight rewording, but the principle is the same.

Change:
* The UNIX operating system is favored by programmers because of
its many tools and its successful abstraction of system resources
as files
To:
* _Many programmers favor_ the UNIX operating system because of...


Uncle Ed, aka Ed Poor