This IS an interesting question brought up by James. Murky, yes, but let's
not lose perspective here. We all want to believe that we don't actually
make mistakes, but, as James so painfully pointed it out, we sometimes do
present misleading or incorrect information in our reports. Aside from the
jokes about the distribution of the typical CRM report, the incorporation of
an errata after the distribution of the volume is generally not even worth
discussing.
But let's look to other fields, say math or science, for guidance. Every
time a scientific theorem or precept is negated or proved wrong, it doesn't
necessarily discount the other merits of the book, manuscript, or report
that might contain the misinformation. We generally just accept the
information as outdated or incorrect and move on.
When the playing field is narrowed, say you write the only definitive work
on Captain Charles Selin Davis, 147th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
Company G, and in your work you present misinformation . . . different ball
game. As we all see, here is where it truly does get dizzying! Errata,
reprints, journal publications correcting the error, I suppose you could
try. But at what time and expense? Perhaps we just have to embrace the
horror and hope someone else will catch and correct our mistake in the next
definitive work on Captain Charles Selin Davis, 147th Pennsylvania Volunteer
Infantry Company G!
MSTC (my 'skewed' two cents)
Matthew Sterner
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: Past work
> In a message dated 12/1/2004 5:20:33 AM Mountain Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
>> What if any responsibility does a CRM professional (archaeologist,
>> architectural historian, etc.) have for old reports? For instance, if
>> it becomes clear that parts of a report were incorrect, is there any
>> obligation to publish an errata?
>>
>> James H. Brothers IV, RPA
>>
>
> What an interesting question, James. For our part, its often hard to know
> if
> something is incorrect since we often don't hear anything about the report
> once it leaves our office - other than acceptance of it. There may be
> problems,
> but they are not always voiced. On the other hand, there are a few
> agencies
> who go into excruciating detail about all the problems including spelling,
> too
> many spaces between words and grammar and expect us to supply a corrected
> copy.
>
> I'd be interested to hear what others may experience and how they deal
> with
> it. It seems to depend upon the agency CRM person involved.
>
> Mike Polk
> Sagebrush Consultants
> Ogden, Utah
>
>
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