How do we think?
Chapter 02 / 18
Separate source and claim
A good source can still make a mistake.
Keep three separate lines
Fact: the saved notice says ‘Closed on Sunday’. Inference: it may be closed this Sunday too. Assumption: we accept that the notice still applies. The last two lines need more support. Check again if the notice is old.
Many copies, few sources
Five accounts may share the same photo. If all copy one notice, you do not have five separate sources. Find the first source. Keep records that do not fit your idea too. Looking only for your favourite answer is Confirmation bias.
Check a claim
Enlarge ↗Read as text
- Source
- Date
- First record
- Other explanation
- Missing data
Same terms in both languages
Keep these words
- Fact
- A fact supported by a record.
- Inference
- An idea you reach from evidence.
- Assumption
- Something you accept for now.
- Confidence
- How strongly the evidence supports the answer.
- Circular reporting
- Many reports repeat one source.
A small example
Let’s do it together
Three blogs use the same notice. The library’s page gives different hours today.
Find which notice the blogs used.
Write each record’s date and evidence.
Show the record for the new hours. Explain how it differs from the old notice.
From my research notes · Real record
Two pages, the same map
In the Beirut study, I compared NASA and NASA Earth Observatory pages. Two pages do not always mean two separate measurements.
Read the record
- The map comes from analysis by ARIA and the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
- The same analysis also appears on another background. Its source chain goes back to the same work.
I found a second page
Enlarge ↗Read as text
- A separate observation?
- Yes: Compare method and finding
- No: Add it to the same source chain
What I can write
I keep both links in my notes. I do not count them as two independent pieces of evidence.
Where I stop
Finding a new page is different from finding a new observation.
These are existing public records. The images are resized for reading; no new image detail was generated.
Close the notes. Think first.
Your turn
Does F6 in the Admiralty system mean ‘false’?
Read the explanation
No. We cannot judge source reliability or information credibility. Unknown and false are different.
Reading record
Only on this browser. These marks are not test results.Sources
I used my study notes and wrote new practice examples. The source PDF is not distributed here.
About the sources and rights