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True Tale

Stories with their sources showing.

210articles

0sources cited

18photographs

The library

210 evergreen reads, ready for launch day. Reference and explainer writing only: nothing here claims a news event, an audience or an archive that does not exist.

Corrections culture (26)

Why a Visible Correction Builds More Trust Than Silence The Difference Between a Clarification and a Correction Building a Corrections Policy Before You Need One The Discipline of Owning a Small Error Quickly How Readers Respond to Transparent Correction The Ethics of Correcting After a Story Has Spread Distinguishing Factual Error From Interpretive Disagreement The Correction That Arrives From the Subject of a Story Archiving Corrected Versions Without Erasing the Original The Tone of a Good Correction Notice When a Correction Requires More Than a Footnote Building a Culture Where Fact Checkers Are Welcomed, Not Resented The Slow Correction: Revisiting a Story Months Later Distinguishing Between Updates and Corrections The Value of a Public Editor or Standards Column Learning From a Correction Rather Than Just Issuing One The Discipline of the Correction Log When Silence About an Error Becomes Its Own Story Correcting a Headline Without Correcting the Story The Ethics of Quietly Editing Digital Text Building Reader Trust Through Consistent Correction Habits The Difference Between a Retraction and a Correction How Institutions Model Good Correction Practice The Correction That Comes Too Late to Matter Teaching New Writers to Welcome Correction What a Newsroom's Correction Rate Actually Measures

Documents explained (26)

Reading a Certificate: What It Proves and What It Assumes Understanding the Structure of a Formal Report Reading Correspondence for Tone as Well as Content What a Ledger Entry Can and Cannot Tell You Understanding Registers and Their Limitations Reading a Map as a Documentary Source What a Photograph's Caption Does and Doesn't Confirm Understanding the Difference Between a Draft and a Final Reading a Ledger's Marginal Corrections The Structure of a Formal Complaint or Petition Understanding Watermarks, Letterheads and Provenance Clues Reading a Newspaper Clipping Without a Byline What an Index Reveals About a Document's Intended Use Understanding Redaction and What It Signals Reading a Form: The Questions Behind the Boxes The Anatomy of a Formal Statement or Declaration Understanding Transcription Conventions and Their Limits Reading a Document's Physical Condition as Evidence What Cross-Outs and Insertions Tell a Careful Reader Understanding the Difference Between Copy and Original Reading a Ledger's Totals Against Its Entries The Document That Contradicts Itself: What to Do Building a Glossary for Unfamiliar Document Types Reading an Official Seal or Stamp as Evidence Understanding Standardised Forms Across Different Eras What a Document's Absence From a Series Can Mean

Evidence craft (27)

Primary and Secondary Sources: A Working Definition Corroboration: Why One Source Is Never Enough Weighing Documentary Evidence Against Testimony Reading a Source Against Its Own Bias Building a Paper Trail From Fragments The Discipline of Dating Undated Material Separating Fact From Inference in Your Notes Evidence Hierarchies and When to Apply Them Negative Evidence: What Isn't There Also Speaks Cross Checking Names, Dates and Places Systematically Judging a Source's Proximity to the Event Reading Institutional Records for What They Omit The Craft of the Annotated Timeline Weighing Memory Against the Documentary Record Testing a Claim Against Independent Threads The Habit of the Working Bibliography Recognising Manufactured or Staged Evidence Evidence Logs: Keeping Your Own Audit Trail The Difference Between Plausible and Proven Reading Statistics as Evidence, Carefully The Role of Expert Verification in Complex Claims Triangulating Oral, Documentary and Physical Evidence Handling Evidence That Contradicts Your Thesis The Ethics of Withholding Unverifiable Claims Building Confidence Levels Into Your Notes Recognising When Evidence Is Simply Insufficient The Long Discipline of Revisiting Old Evidence

Interviewing (26)

Verifying an Interview Subject's Own Claims Reading Body Language Without Over-Reading It The Ethics of Recording Consent Structuring an Interview Around Chronology Versus Theme Knowing When to Stop Pushing a Question The Value of the Pre-Interview Conversation Handling Contradictions Between Memory and the Record Interviewing for Texture Versus Interviewing for Fact The Discipline of the Accurate Quote Preparing Questions That Invite Specifics, Not Generalities The Pause: Letting Silence Do Its Work Building Trust Before the Recorder Starts The Ethics of the Follow-Up Question Recognising When a Subject Is Performing, Not Recalling Taking Notes While Still Listening The Craft of the Open Versus Closed Question Handling Reluctant or Guarded Subjects Interviewing Across Generational or Cultural Distance The Second Interview: What Changes and Why Working With Interpreters Without Losing Nuance The Follow-Up Email That Closes a Gap Recognising Leading Questions in Your Own Drafts Building Rapport Without Compromising Rigour The Ethics of Anonymising a Source Letting a Subject Correct the Record Afterward Closing an Interview Well: The Last Question That Matters

Narrative ethics (26)

The Line Between Compression and Distortion Composite Characters: Why the Craft Avoids Them Consent and the Vulnerable Subject The Ethics of Reconstructing Dialogue When Silence Protects and When It Conceals The Writer's Obligation to Context Balancing Empathy With Accuracy The Ethics of Narrative Suspense in True Stories Naming: When to Withhold and When to Disclose The Danger of the Too-Tidy Ending Avoiding the Seduction of a Good Story Over an Accurate One The Ethics of Speculation Clearly Labelled as Such Writing About the Dead: Obligations That Outlast the Subject The Ethics of Point of View in Nonfiction When a Story Serves the Writer More Than the Truth The Line Between Advocacy and Reporting Handling Material That Could Cause Real-World Harm The Ethics of Omission: What a Fair Story Leaves Out Writing Across Power Imbalance The Obligation to Let a Subject Respond Avoiding Manufactured Tension for Narrative Effect The Ethics of the Unreliable Framing Device When Empathy for One Subject Unbalances a Story The Long Tail: How a Published Story Keeps Affecting Real Lives The Discipline of Checking Your Own Motives Writing Hard Truths Without Cruelty

Research methods (26)

Building a Research Question Before Chasing Sources The Value of the Literature Review, Even for a Short Piece Structuring a Research File So Nothing Gets Lost Knowing When You Have Enough to Write The Discipline of the Source Log Following a Footnote Trail Responsibly Balancing Depth Against Deadline The Value of a Second Reader Before Publication Building a Chronology as a Research Tool Recognising Confirmation Bias in Your Own Research The Discipline of the Devil's Advocate Pass Using Public Records Without Overreaching Their Meaning Structuring Interviews Around Research Gaps The Discipline of the Annotated Source List Testing a Hypothesis Against the Record, Not the Reverse Research Fatigue and How to Recognise It The Value of a Research Diary Structuring Research Around Competing Explanations Knowing When to Abandon a Promising Lead The Discipline of Citing Method as Well as Fact Teaching Research Method to New Writers The Value of Revisiting a Topic Years Later Recognising When a Story Has Outgrown Its Original Scope Building a Research Network of Trusted Contacts The Ethics of Paywalled or Restricted Sources Cross-Disciplinary Research: Borrowing Method From Other Fields

Story structure (26)

The Chronological Spine and When to Break It Structuring Around a Central Question Rather Than an Event The Use of Scene in Evidence-Based Writing Pacing Revelation Without Manipulating the Reader The Nut Graf and Why It Still Matters Structuring a Story With Multiple Timelines The Ethics of the Cliffhanger in True Narrative Using Structure to Carry Argument, Not Just Chronology The Role of the Ending in Nonfiction Storytelling Building Tension Without Inventing Conflict The Braided Structure: Weaving Parallel Threads Choosing a Narrator's Distance From the Material Structuring Around a Central Document or Artefact The Frame Story: When It Earns Its Place Using Foreshadowing Responsibly in True Stories The Discipline of the Clean Opening Line Structuring a Correction or Update Within a Longer Piece The Role of White Space and Section Breaks Building Structure Around a Central Character's Arc The Danger of Structure That Outruns the Evidence Using Recurring Motifs Without Forcing Them Structuring a Story for a Reader Who Already Knows the Outcome The Value of the Short, Declarative Closing Paragraph Balancing Scene and Summary Structuring Around Absence: Writing What's Missing The Architecture of a Well-Built Long-Form Piece

Working with archives (27)

Read the Finding Aid Before You Request a Box Why Provenance Is the Spine of Every Archive Original Order and Why Archivists Protect It What a Catalogue Record Leaves Unsaid Reading Room Rules Exist to Protect Evidence An Archive Is Not the Same as a Records Store Chain of Custody for Paper, Not Just Digital Files Working Carefully With Restricted Collections Container Lists as a Planning Tool What an Accession Number Actually Tells You Photographing Archival Material Without Damaging It Archivists as Research Partners, Not Gatekeepers Reading Marginalia as a Layer of Evidence Following One Story Across Several Repositories The Patience Archives Ask of a Writer Understanding a Deed of Gift and Its Limits What Changes When a Record Is Digitised Reading the Silence in an Empty Folder Working Around Gaps in Provenance The Ethics of Requesting a Sealed Collection Checking Catalogue Metadata Against the Record Itself Institutional Archives Versus Personal Papers Classification Schemes and Why They Differ The Discipline of a Precise Archival Citation Reading a Correspondence Series for Its Narrative Thread Building a Research Trail Others Can Follow Knowing When an Archive Has Told You All It Can

Photo credits (Creative Commons, via Openverse)

Ashby St Ledgers Cottages Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page205 by Book author: Weaver, Lawrence, 1876-1930 (Public domain)
Ashby St Ledgers Cottages Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page206 by Book author: Weaver, Lawrence, 1876-1930 (Public domain)
Ashby St Ledgers Old Gateway to New Archway and Bridge Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page203 by Book author: Weaver, Lawrence, 1876-1930 (Public domain)
Ashby St Ledgers Plan of Cottages Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page206 by Book author: Weaver, Lawrence, 1876-1930 (Public domain)
Ashby St Ledgers the Forecourt Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page202 by Book author: Weaver, Lawrence, 1876-1930 (Public domain)
Ashby St Ledgers the New North Hall Lutyens Houses and Gardens 1913 Page204 by Book author: Weaver, Lawrence, 1876-1930 (Public domain)
Ledger Book Drawing by Anonymous (possibly Cheyenne)Unknown author (Public domain)
Ledger Book Drawing by Anonymous (possibly Cheyenne)Unknown author (Public domain)
Ledger Book Drawing by Anonymous (possibly Cheyenne)Unknown author (Public domain)
Ledger Book Drawing by Anonymous (possibly Cheyenne)Unknown author (Public domain)
Ledger Book Drawing by Unknown authorUnknown author (Public domain)
Ledger Book Drawing by Anonymous (possibly cheyenne)Unknown author (Public domain)