The Research and Source-Checking Pattern

Unit ID: PAW-M09-U02 Estimated active time: 20-25 minutes

The family

Understanding an unfamiliar area, planning what to read, summarising material you have gathered, checking whether a claim holds up.

The defining feature is that you do not yet hold the facts — which makes this the highest-risk family in the course.

Why it is the riskiest

Every other family gives the tool your material. This one asks it for material, and that is precisely where invented citations, plausible-sounding standards and confident wrong dates appear.

The pattern therefore does not ask for facts. It asks for structure, questions and search directions.

The pattern

PATTERN: research and source checking

Use when:        you need to orient, plan reading, or organise gathered material
Do not use when: you need a fact you will rely on and cannot check

Slots
  Question:      what you are trying to find out, in one sentence
  What you have: sources already gathered, between markers
  Decision:      what the answer will be used for

Fixed rules
  - do not supply facts, figures, dates, citations or standards
  - where a fact is needed, write it as a question for me to research
  - mark each statement [FROM MY SOURCES] or [GENERAL -- VERIFY]
  - never produce a citation, reference or URL

Output spec:  what is known from my sources | open questions ranked by
              importance | where to look | what would change the answer
Review:       every [GENERAL] line is a to-do, not a finding
Known failure: a confident un-cited claim reads as established -- the marking
               rule is what makes it visible

Use it to plan reading, not to replace it

This pattern is strongest at the beginning: turning a vague topic into a ranked list of questions and likely places to look.

That is real work, honestly done. The reading still has to happen.

Never accept a generated citation

Citations, clause numbers, standard references and URLs are the single most common fabrication, and they are the most damaging because they look verifiable.

The rule in the pattern is absolute for a reason: do not ask for them, and do not use them if they appear.

Mini practice

Take a topic you need to understand.

Run the pattern and count the [GENERAL -- VERIFY] lines.

Turn the top three open questions into an actual reading list.

Mark complete