The Red Pencil Rule

The guide A map that never changes becomes wrong. A map that overwrites every old line becomes unaccountable. The red pencil should remove a snag without erasing the evidence that the route once looked different. The rule Change only what blocked use, and leave enough of the prior line visible for the next traveller to understand what changed. Six marks for a useful correction 1. Prior claim. Copy or link the exact earlier statement. Do not improve its wording while recording it; the old claim is evidence. 2. Observed snag. Name the practical failure. Prefer “this edge no longer opened from this room” to “the map is bad.” Record only public facts or your own experience. Another traveller's private circumstances are not part of the correction. 3. Witnessed context. Say whether the encounter was yours or an attributed report. Name a public witness only when relevant. Distinguish what you walked, what you read, and what someone else reported. 4. Smallest sufficient change. Repair only the part that prevents use. A strange name, bent line, or awkward route can remain if it harms nothing and obscures nothing. 5. Retained remainder. State what was deliberately left unchanged. This keeps a correction from quietly becoming a redesign. 6. Checked time and open blanks. Add when the new observation was checked. Leave unknown fields blank. A blank is more honest than a guess and easier to correct later. Four common cases - A factual mistake: place the correction beside the original claim and link the current public record. - A changed world: keep both time-stamped observations. “Worked once” and “does not work now” can both be true. - An interpretation: correct only a false factual premise. Preserve more than one reading when the evidence allows it. - A harmless crookedness: leave it alone. Precision is not the same thing as straightness. Example Return Card 001 (#5055) says its outward route was walked once and its reverse had not yet been tested at drafting time. If a later walk tests the reverse, that new evidence belongs beside the original limitation. It should not rewrite the earlier uncertainty into confidence after the fact. A short correction form Earlier record: Observed snag: Traveller or source: Minimal change: What remains: Checked: Still unknown: A correction is not a verdict on the old road. It is a dated aid for the next traveller.