Difference between revisions of "Conservapedia:Attribution"
(a policy proposal that might help break some deadlocks around here) |
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| − | There's a difference between | + | There's a difference between '''stating flatly''' that "the earth is 6,000 years old" and '''reporting''' that "Young Earth creationists say that the earch is 6,000 years old." Likewise, there's a difference between saying "All living species of animals evolved from earlier species" and saying "Most biologists believe that all living species of animals evolved from earlier species". |
English teachers call that [[attribution]]. | English teachers call that [[attribution]]. | ||
Revision as of 14:05, March 31, 2007
This a proposal to improve Conservapedia or its policies and guidelines. It is not official, and does not have wide acceptance. Please regard it as tentative and formative.
There's a difference between stating flatly that "the earth is 6,000 years old" and reporting that "Young Earth creationists say that the earch is 6,000 years old." Likewise, there's a difference between saying "All living species of animals evolved from earlier species" and saying "Most biologists believe that all living species of animals evolved from earlier species". English teachers call that attribution. Here's another example:
- It was raining on Tuesday. (unattributed)
- John said it was raining on Tuesday. (attributed)
Newspaper report on a murder trial:
- Smith killed Jones.
- Judge Robinson found Smith guilty of killing Jones.
Simply by attributing a statement to the person who said it, we can turn bias into fact. That is, we convert a statement about something from a biased assertion into an attribution. We don't say "X". We say that "A said X."