Reading a Certificate: What It Proves and What It Assumes
Launch library · evergreen read
A formal certificate, whether it records a qualification, an event or an official status, proves that a particular process was followed and a particular authority signed off on the outcome, though it does not automatically prove every surrounding claim a reader might be tempted to infer from the document alone.
Reading a certificate carefully means separating what it explicitly states from what a casual glance might assume it implies, since the issuing body, the date and the specific wording all matter more than the document's general, official looking appearance might suggest at first glance to an unpractised reader moving quickly through an unfamiliar kind of paperwork.
Treating a certificate as one piece of evidence among several, rather than as a complete and self sufficient proof of everything associated with it, keeps a writer's use of the document appropriately careful, honest and precise throughout the whole piece, rather than resting the entire argument on one official looking item.