  The errors inherent to the use of the standard "ionization correction factor"
("i_CF") method of calculating nebular conditions and relative abundances of H,
He, N, O, Ne, S, and Ar in emission line nebulae have been investigated under
conditions typical for planetary nebulae. The photoionization code CLOUDY was
used to construct a series of model nebulae with properties spanning the range
typical of PNe. Its radial "profiles" of bright, frequently observed optical
emission lines were then summed over a variety of "apertures" to generate sets
of emission line measurements. These resulting line ratios were processed using
the i_CF method to "derive" nebular conditions and abundances. We find that for
lines which are summed over the entire nebula the i_CF-derived abundances
differ from the input abundances by less than 5% for He and O up to 25% or more
for Ne, S, and Ar. For resolved observations, however, the discrepancies are
often much larger and are systematically variable with radius. This effect is
especially pronounced in low-ionization zones where nitrogen and oxygen are
neutral or once-ionized such as in FLIERs, ansae and ionization fronts. We
argue that the reports of stellar-enriched N in the FLIERs of several PNe are
probably specious.
