Copy, Reword, Paste for Dummies

tree height estimation

As far as we can tell, the self-appointed freelance "professionals" who wrote for eHow (some of whom still write for Leaf Group) were a motley crew composed mainly of English majors and unemployed journalism graduates. As one of them once admitted (see comment here), they had to meet "crippling" deadline pressure to collect their pittance of a stipend. Still, you'd think the more "professional" ones would have a good handle on the simple copy-reword-paste process... Owen E. Richason IV, however, showed that some didn't with his eHow.com post, "How to Measure How Far a Tree Will Fall."

Richason, here making his eighth appearance as a DotD, decided – correctly – that you'd need to know how tall the tree is, and found himself a reference for estimating tree height. For some reason, Owen doesn't use the word "estimate." Instead, he claims that all you need to do is,

"Think back to geometry classes and the iconic right-angled triangle; this basic shape gives you the means of determining the tree's reach by using basic trigonometry..." ...in the process butchering "right triangle" and conflating geometry with trigonometry. But that's not Richason's biggest problem. No, Owen fell flat on rewording the simple directions, the better to avoid being nailed for plagiarism. In the process, he rendered his instructions pretty much useless. If you compare IV's post to the instructions in the original, you'll see where his rewording failed him:

• Use a "straight board or yard stick [sic]" and "break" it at a point? Really?
• "Stand near the trunk of the tree and walk out as many feet as you estimate the tree to be tall. For instance, if you think the tree is 30 feet in height, walk thirty paces from the trunk." – Ummm, Owen, thirty paces is a lot more than 30 feet... should've reworded the directions!
• "Look up at the tree's top with your eyes only, keeping your head pointed straight ahead. Walk forward or backward a couple of paces at a time until the tip of the tree and the tip of the stick align." – That's as opposed to his reference, which says to "Walk toward or away from the tree until the tip of the stick is visually lined up with the top of the tree and the bottom of the stick is lined up with the bottom of the tree." – You didn't mention the bottom, Owen!

Richason's "directions" omit another key point; the warning that you should try this trick on level ground. In other words, combining a rush to collect his fifteen bucks with his knowledge that the content editor would be just as clueless as he was, Owen did a crappy copy-reword-paste job and left it at that.

Given that Richason obviously didn't understand the geometric principles and pretty much ruined the technique with his sloppy reword, is it any wonder that the guy's picking up yet another Dumbass of the Day award? We don't think so...

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