23 March 2022  |  From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow.

 

Whether you want to admit it or not, if it's in a book you probably treat it as gospel. (At least subconsciously.)

 

Which is why I want you to urge caution when it comes to your references for communication work.

 

In Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors, there is an error.

 

If you turn to page 426, you'll find an entry that states:

 

Warrnambool, New South Wales.

 

Except, it isn't in New South Wales.

 

Warrnambool is a regional city on the shipwreck coast of South Western Victoria. I'm intimately familiar with the place; my Granny lived there.

 

When I saw this, I wondered whether I could trust the rest of the book.

 

How do I know that fulsome means odiously insincere unless I pick up a different book to verify it? (It does; the Macquarie Australian English dictionary tells me that it means offensive to good taste.)

 

The trouble with things in writing is that people trust it.

 

If it comes from a trusted source (e.g. your clients who love you get information from you), then whatever you write is going to be trusted.

 

You can even swindle people by throwing in a couple of links, if it's in an email. Or a couple of references, if it's hardcopy. If you do this, people assume that what you've written is rinky-dink. They'll assume it even without checking. And they'll assume that you have done the due diligence for them.

 

Obviously, this can be (and often is) misused. You can use it to solidify an argument that is flimsy or even false. You can use it to pretend that you've done deep research. 

 

And if you pair this behaviour with any piffling and invalid sample size, then you can reference your survey that '92% of people prefer Brutal Pixie'(ref).

 

With great power comes great responsibility.

 

The pen is mightier than the sword.

 

Just remember to be cautious, and exercise your own caution, lest you inadvertently cut off your own head.

 

xx Leticia 'oracle' Mooney

 

Please let me know what I can do for you.
 
Leticia Mooney is a consultant with decades of experience writing with and for people like you. Her company Brutal Pixie casts the kind of spells your customers love. Its services are oracles (communication strategy, CCX, audits, investigations, quality assurance), metamorphoses (training, mentoring, coaching, wargaming), and your stories in magick hands (ghostwriting, content writing, editorial support). Leticia is also the mother of an intelligent, engaging, and curious boy, who is named after a character created by J.R.R Tolkien.

 

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