Without evidence to the contrary, shouldn't we assume that an author will be ignorant of Phenomenon X, instead of that s/he will must have known about it? (By existing?) There are times when it's not even clear that the author knows anything about the subject of his or her own work, after all...
Do I hear your experience with undergraduates as well as with authors behind this discouraged statement?
Posted by: nbm | May 29, 2010 at 09:35 AM