Record claims at a useful level of detail
One paragraph can contain several claims: an action occurred, a number changed and the action caused the change. Give these separate rows when their evidence differs. This prevents a source supporting only one detail from appearing to validate the whole paragraph.
Use your own concise wording while retaining the original meaning. Keep any short quotation clearly marked and distinguish it from a paraphrase. Record a location within the source when that helps another reader find the passage.
Preserve dates, scope and source roles
Record publication date, event date when known and the period covered by a metric. Note whether the source is a company announcement, reported interview, primary filing or a later analysis. These roles affect what it can establish.
For numbers, retain units, currency, denominator and whether the figure is an estimate. Never silently repair a missing symbol or unclear unit from intuition. Mark it for verification against an authoritative source.
Track support, contradiction and dependence
Add a support status: direct support, partial support, contradicted or unresolved. Explain the limitation briefly. Several articles repeating one press release do not provide several independent confirmations.
When sources disagree, keep both claims and investigate differences in date or definition. Do not average incompatible numbers merely to produce a tidy answer. The disagreement itself may be important to the decision.
Use the ledger to maintain the research
Attach the claim to the memo, guide or comparison where it is used. If a source is corrected or a metric becomes outdated, you can identify which conclusions need review instead of rereading everything.
For an illustrative pricing study, flag the price date and market beside each observation. A later price change should trigger review of that comparison, not an automatic rewrite of historical events. Preserve the original evidence and the reason for any correction.
Use this worksheet for your decision
Copy this into your notes. Leave unknowns visible instead of filling gaps with guesses.
Claim ID and wording: Source URL and location: Publication/event/measurement dates: Source role: Units and scope: Support status: Independent corroboration or shared origin: Where used: Review trigger and correction history:Download the text worksheet ↓
Find evidence in the archives
Choose a supporting case and a counterexample with a different outcome. Read their sources and check whether their conditions match yours.
Cases to practice with (read and check the underlying sources):
Bring your question to the cases
Search a company or topic in the app, read the cases and ask follow-up questions to compare approaches.