Concepts

Effective Communication: Principles for Any Context

Published by When Notes Fly

https://whennotesfly.com/concepts/communication/how-to-communicate-clearly

When Notes Fly article, fact-checked and corrected.

Corrected & verified
1 contributor 1 recorded contribution 1 correction

Who created and checked this page

Correction history

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

  1. 28 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

    Corrected seven aviation/medical/readability claims: removed an unverifiable 2004 Boeing 737 LAX anecdote and an unsourced '27% fewer errors' CRM statistic; qualified an overstated NTSB causal attribution for the fall in aviation fatalities; corrected Helmreich and Foushee from designers of United's 1981 CRM program to later CRM researchers; re-dated and re-scoped the Pronovost checklist result to the 2006 Michigan Keystone multicomponent project (removing isolated 66% / 1,500-lives / $175M figures); fixed a heading that mis-attributed George Klare's readability work to the University of Wisconsin (he was at Ohio University); and corrected the Boomerang email study (sample size, non-peer-reviewed status, relative-vs-absolute 53%, and removed an unsupported 'controlled for' claim).

    Before

    The article stated a 2004 Boeing 737 LAX emergency landing, a 1995 study showing CRM crews made 27% fewer errors, an NTSB attribution of falling aviation fatalities to CRM, that Helmreich and Foushee designed United's 1981 program, a 2009 Pronovost surgical checklist study saving 1,500 lives and $175M across 103 hospitals, that Klare's research was at the University of Wisconsin, and a Boomerang 2016 study of 5.3 million emails with grade 3-5 emails getting responses 53% more often, controlling for familiarity and length.

    After

    Removed or generalized the unverifiable anecdote and unsourced statistics; qualified overstated single-cause attributions; corrected attributions and affiliations to what the primary record supports (Michigan Keystone 2006 multicomponent central-line project; Klare at Ohio University; Boomerang as a non-peer-reviewed company blog analysis reporting a relative response-rate difference).

    Why: Several claims carried precise figures with no locatable primary source or mis-stated the source's design and scope. Policy is to remove invented specifics, qualify single-cause claims, and correct attributions rather than substitute new unverified sources.

    View the full record →

Full contribution timeline

  1. Correction 28 July 2026

    Emir Baycan: Corrected seven aviation/medical/readability claims: removed an unverifiable 2004 Boeing 737 LAX anecdote and an unsourced '27% fewer errors' CRM statistic; qualified an overstated NTSB causal attribution for the fall in aviation fatalities; corrected Helmreich and Foushee from designers of United's 1981 CRM program to later CRM researchers; re-dated and re-scoped the Pronovost checklist result to the 2006 Michigan Keystone multicomponent project (removing isolated 66% / 1,500-lives / $175M figures); fixed a heading that mis-attributed George Klare's readability work to the University of Wisconsin (he was at Ohio University); and corrected the Boomerang email study (sample size, non-peer-reviewed status, relative-vs-absolute 53%, and removed an unsupported 'controlled for' claim).

    Proof record →