Chapter 7: Building a Durable Source and Provenance Trail

Make the Evidence Retrievable

A source trail should let another reader reconstruct how an important sentence was written. A browser bookmark alone may not identify the relevant passage, version, or limitation. Record enough information to find the material again and understand how you used it.

Fictional teaching case: The campus-transit records and outlet briefs in Chapter 1 are invented practice material. They are not publishable evidence or real submission policies.

Build One Complete Record

For the sentence “weekday boardings rose from 1,000 to 1,200,” a practice record might contain:

• Source: fictional Record A in this guide’s teaching dossier; not a real dataset.
• Locator: count-table description, two comparable four-week teaching periods.
• Material used: the two totals; no direct quotation.
• Meaning and limit: recorded trips increased; unique riders and causation are not established.
• Manuscript use: evidence paragraph comparing usage with scheduling.
• Verification status: checked against the teaching dossier; real publication evidence still required.

For actual research, also record author or organisation, title, date or version when available, URL or repository identifier, access date, and a precise page, section, item, or timestamp. Preserve an appropriate copy or extract when permitted and useful. Do not invent missing bibliographic details.

Keep Notes in Distinct Categories

Mark exact wording as a quotation immediately. Put paraphrase in a separate field and your interpretation in another. “The timetable’s final departure is 20:10” and “the operator ignored students” are different kinds of statement; the second attributes a motive that the timetable does not establish.

Keep a short decision log when evidence changes the thesis. Here, the working idea shifts from general service success to a comparison of usage and late-class scheduling. Record what changed and why. Document substantive AI assistance, including suggested research directions or wording retained, while checking every source independently.

Try It Yourself

Create a source record for Record C. Include its twenty volunteers, eight late-class reports, lack of a before survey, and limited sampling. Then trace one sentence in your draft back to the record. Ask a reader whether the record permits them to check the sentence without guessing.

Check Your Work

Can you distinguish borrowed language from your own notes? Are consequential claims linked to locators? Have you recorded limitations alongside useful findings? A complete-looking bibliography cannot compensate for an untraceable claim.

Source Guidance

Paraphrased ideas still require attribution; exact borrowed wording needs quotation treatment. (University of Toronto)