Separating Fact From Inference in Your Notes
Launch library · evergreen read
Research notes blur fact and interpretation faster than most writers realise, especially under genuine time pressure late in a project. A detail directly observed in a document and a conclusion drawn from it can end up recorded in the very same sentence, with no marker distinguishing the two clearly.
A simple habit fixes this problem: noting what a source literally states in one place, then separately noting what you infer from it, using different formatting or a clear label for each. Months later, that distinction is often the only thing standing between a defensible claim and a genuine overreach.
This discipline slows research slightly at the time but saves far more time at the drafting stage, when the difference between what was actually said and what was merely assumed suddenly matters a very great deal indeed. The extra minute this takes at the note taking stage is consistently cheaper than the hour it can save when a draft is being checked line by line.