Here is a quote taken from a March 6, 2003 article from Yahoo! News. "An estimated 17 percent of libraries already use filtering software on at least some of their computers, with varying degrees of success in screening out only objectionable material." (Click here to view the article) While 17% is vague enough, the author uses the word "estimated" to make the statistic even more vague!

When the source for the statistic isn't listed, how can we trust it? (Might it be unethical of the author to publish this?)

2. Let's assume that you are writing a brochure for a consumer product that will be published in a news magazine and viewed by millions of people. Your boss wants you to use a statistic that shows how dissatisfied people are with your competitor's product. The statistic came from a poll of 20 people, who are all family members of employees working for your company. The statistic is representative of those people, but is obviously biased toward your product. Is it unethical to print that statistic? What if your boss doesn't want you to include who the people were who took the poll?

3. When technical people review technical writing, they are often looking for statements that cannot be supported. In the sample article on page 5, what statements are misleading or need more support? (One statement that caught my attention was "In fact, every study of homicide shows the overwhelming majority of murderers are career criminals, people with lifelong histories of violence." Why did the author say, "every study of homicide..."? If the sentance were started with simply, "In fact, the overwhelming majority of murderers....", it wouldn't mislead the reader, yet the statement wouldn't grab the reader's attention the same way. What other examples of misleading or unsupportable writing can you find in this sample?

Statistics are often misleading, often unsupported, and sometimes unethical. They are often tossed into writing to grab the reader's attention, but there are other "attention grabbers" too. What about quotations?

Here is a part of a Yahoo! News article, "People are taking their money out of the market because they don't want to be long over the weekend with all the uncertainty about the geopolitical situation," said one trader.

What function does that quote serve? First of all, the person that made the statement didn't even get their name associated with the quote! Why? Is it possible that he heard someone else make that statement and then regurgitated it for the press? Why would money in the market over a weekend be a problem? The markets aren't open on the weekend, right? In an extreme case, what if this "trader" is trying to sabotage a company that will be dramatically affected if their stock price drops? Maybe he is trying to convince other traders to pull their money.

Quotes can be just as ambiguous as statistics. They can also be taken out of context. President Bush made a speech last night that focused on Iraq. He speaks fragments at a time, and is an ideal candidate to have quotes taken out of context. If you have the time, I encourage you to download this 4.4 megabyte video of a State of the Union speech from President Bush. This video was edited, obviously, but it shows how easily quotes can be taken out of context.