Re: Oil Field Engineer Case - philosophy

[Slaback@micf.nist.gov]

".....Part of a case presentation is the patient's history of his or
her illness.  A common mistake that physicians make is not to
record verbatim key parts of the patients history, often because it
doesn't look professional.  For example if a man tells his doctor he
felt "like the floor was moving" then that is what the physician
should record (not that the man says he has vertigo which has a very
precise medical meaning).  The man may indeed be experiencing vertigo
but in a case presentation you present the history as close to what
the patient told you as possible even if some of terms sound silly......"

This was a very useful comment, and makes the point that readers
cannot presume to know the context of any message, unless the writer
is very explicit (and maybe not even then).  So a reader has the
choice of responding based literally on what is said, based on what
the reader thinks it says, based on what he thinks the writer really
intended, or based on what he/she thinks the writer needs to know
regardless of what was asked.  Some of the responses of late have
been in the latter categories, which is fine if the responder so
identifies the response.

T'is late is the week so more philosophy leaks out.