Every claimMargin note 0, sourced in the margin.

A true story starts with a question sharp enough to tell you where to lookSource 1, not with a heap of interesting material. The first sources worth finding are the ones made at or near the time, by someone with direct knowledgeSource 2, and the way into any collection is the finding aid, the map its archivists drewSource 3.

Before a document can carry a claim, we ask where it has been and who has held itSource 4. One source is one point of view, so a claim stands only when an independent second source supports itSource 5. And sometimes what the record leaves out says something tooSource 6.

In our notes, what a source states and what we infer from it are kept apartSource 7, and every fact is logged to the place it came fromSource 8. A person remembering their own life is a primary source, yet their account is where checking starts, not where it endsSource 9, and a quote says what was actually saidSource 10.

Where the record runs out, a guess is labelled as a guessSource 11. When we get something wrong, the correction is visible and easy to findSource 12. That is the whole method: the sentence, and beside it, what it stands on.