Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Puzzled by Misnaming in the Potter Box Article

I think it's kind of bizarre, not to mention ironic, that Christians' "The Potter Box Model of Reasoning" contains a few considerable errors. He identifies the killers as Robert Thompson (correct) and Jan Venables (incorrect--its Jon). Even more surprising, he repeatedly says the victim's name is Jason Bulger-- it's James Bulger. I found this particularly odd based on the subject matter. Within the same article, Christians notes that the Potter Box "Insists that we always treat the specifics very carefully" (p. 9).

Was this done on purpose? Am I missing something?

Here's a link to the Guardian's collected materials on the murder, which use the (presumably) correct names: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/bulger

1 comment:

....J.Michael Robertson said...

I'm pretty sure it's an ethical failure to do your job in a substandard way. In this case, sloppy editing could lead you to wonder if the writer is as inattentive to reasoning as he is to copy editing. Others certainly share responsibility, but it finally goes back to the writer.