[WikiEN-l] Rules, expertise, and encyclopedic standards

Wed Mar 9 00:09:56 UTC 2005

>From: Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>
>> JAY JG wrote:
>>No, that's a strawman argument.  "Deductive reasoning" becomes 
>>original research when it is used to build a case against a position 
>>presented in an article, not when used to do unit conversions.

>Deductive reason is the application of logic to the facts as already 
>presented.  The uncle/nephew vs. aunt/niece is simply a nonsense comment 
>pulled out of imagination. 

Ray - Jay is correct in his description of original research. His
point is simply that deduction (that is, drawing a conclusion from a
set of premises) should not be used by editors to make a point not
already made in a credible publication. It should not be used to make
cases for certain positions; and in particular, editors should not go
on to present their conclusions as though they're established facts,
which happens a lot. When you're doing a unit conversion, you're just
counting, and if your conversion is correct, you'll find it published
elsewhere anyway, so it wouldn't be original.

Sarah