by Mike Patrick

Created on: September 28, 2009

Don't just take those scary news stories at face value. Look deeper into them to find out what they really say. Start thinking like a cop. The techniques used by cops to discover the truth are there for anyone to use.

Actually, there are many tools police officers use to tell when someone is lying. The average citizen doesn't need many of them. The one almost everyone is familiar with is body language. The TV series "Lie to me," is a wonderful example of where the study of body language is leading-though I'm not sure if anyone presently has the abilities Dr. Lightman displays in the series-but it is only one of the tools police detectives and officers use. Others focus on what how things are said or written.

Just about everyone reading these words has a firm grasp of the nuances of the English language: nuances of word usage designed to convey a specific message on a specific subject. That's the free gift writers receive after reading all those hundreds of books.

Now, think about how you would write an assigned positive-article on something you feel negative about. Or maybe you strongly support a position that can't be backed up by scientific facts. It is still possible to write the articles? Of course it is. It just might not be as strong an article as one you would like it to be. You might have to cherry pick your facts like today's journalists do; omitting those that conflict with the position demanded by the publisher. For instance: in the global warming debate, the fact that CO2 levels lag 800 years behind global temperature levels can be glossed over by simply stating there is a correspondence between CO2 levels and the Earth's temperature levels. By omitting the information on the 800 year lag, many readers might think that CO2 is forcing temperature change rather than the other way around-and you didn't have to lie. It's true! A correspondence exists.

The problem of writing an article like that occurs when someone trained by the likes of Avinoam Sapir reads it. Mr. Sapir developed a system for statement-analyses called Scientific Content ANalysis (SCAN). He is a world-class writing analyst; probably the real life equivalent of the fictional body-language expert Dr. Lightman in "Lie to me."

SCAN makes an extensive study of qualifying words. Qualifying words are used to modify or disguise the truth: words like will, would, should, might, could, maybe, etc. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them.

Pronouns are qualifying words too. They used to indicate

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