[WikiEN-l] Asimov-still POV

Thu Feb 13 05:18:10 UTC 2003

Bridget [name omitted for privacy reasons] wrote:
> The article currently reads as above, the latter part "and is
>thought by many to be the finest science fiction short story ever
>written." needs to either be removed or credited to some source.

I don't agree.  It's perfectly fine as written.  It could be improved,
of course, by crediting it to a source, but it's an uncontroversial
comment as it stands.

> We can all think of several science-fiction stories which instantly
>qualify for "and is thought by many to be the finest science fiction
>short story ever written".

That's true, but so what?  We could say the same thing in a number of
articles, and it would be equally uncontroversially true in all of
them.

It is not POV, so long as it is actually true that many people do
believe it.  "Many" is contextually determined here, so don't try to
play funny tricks with that.

> The article remains POV as it contains a POV statement which has
>been given no source. In the Erwin Rommel article I could say, "Erwin
>Rommel is considered to be the greatest general ever".

Notice how you've dropped a *key* phrase, i.e. "by many".

It is perfectly fine to say "Erwin Rommel is considered by many to be
the greatest general of modern times."  It's much better to say who
the 'many' are, and to give a cite that involves some kind of actual
counting.  But neither are _required_ if it is in fact widely so
thought.

--Jimbo