OBJECTIVE: Determine what supports one claim across a small set of records. Use invented documents on paper or in an authorized test environment. Do not gather private dossiers or publish personal source identities for this exercise.
1. Define the Claim
Write a precise fictional statement, such as a delivery arriving at a depot on a specified date. Create record A reporting that arrival, record B quoting A and record C summarizing B. Add record D that independently records a parcel scan but does not establish who delivered it.
State the question being reviewed. Arrival of a parcel and presence of a particular person are different claims, even when the same records mention both.
2. Draw the Dependencies
Give each record a short identifier. Draw an arrow from each derivative statement to the record it used. Label whether the relationship is a quotation, paraphrase, summary or separate observation. Add the source location needed to verify the link.
Mark a missing reference as unresolved. Do not fill the gap with a plausible origin simply to complete the diagram. A circle of citations is a prompt to investigate the origin, not a new source of support.
3. Write a Bounded Assessment
Explain what A, B and C establish together, then describe exactly what D adds. Ask a second reader whether your wording accidentally attributes a person’s presence to a parcel scan. Revise the claim if its scope exceeds the evidence.
Repeat the assessment with A marked disputed. B and C do not become independent merely because the original is difficult to inspect. Record the dependency and the unresolved question.
4. Follow the Consequence
Model a decision justified by three independent confirmations. Correct that explanation, identify the role responsible for reconsidering it and record what additional evidence would be relevant. Do not prescribe reversal solely from a smaller source count.
Completion criterion: every claimed independent contribution has an explained basis, shared origins are visible, unresolved dependencies remain explicit and the assessment distinguishes the event from its circulation. The exercise does not establish the truth of any real claim.
Read Agreement Without Independence and the fictional Three Witnesses alongside the systems accountability guide.