1. Inquiry
What question am I actually examining?
2. Why it arose
Record what started the inquiry:
- trigger
- repeated signals
- my stake
- answer I initially wanted
- inconvenient answer
3. Ground facts
Record the facts the inquiry rests on:
- dates
- numbers
- actors
- sequence
- constraints
- records
- missing information
4. Direct observations
What I personally saw, heard, experienced, or measured.
5. Interpretations
For each interpretation, record:
- explanation
- supporting facts
- mechanism
- confidence
- competing explanation
6. Assumptions
What the argument requires but has not established.
7. Speculation
Possibilities worth keeping without treating them as conclusions.
8. Present position
Record where you stand now:
- what I now believe
- what I no longer believe
- smallest defensible claim
- strongest defensible claim
- stronger claim I cannot defend
9. Countercase
Record the case against your position:
- strongest objection
- contradictory evidence
- conditions where the opposite is true
- response
- what would change my mind
10. Boundaries
Record the limits of the inquiry:
- what this inquiry is about
- what it is not about
- enabling conditions
- local conditions
- adjacent ideas to keep separate
11. Unresolved questions
What remains unknown or needs observation.
12. Raw material
Incidents, quotations, calculations, screenshots, prompts, notes, artefacts, source references.
13. Claims not ready for use
Statements that appeared during inquiry but remain unsupported, too broad, or premature.
14. Readiness verdict
Choose one verdict:
- ready to support a Thinking Essay
- needs more evidence
- continue observing
- split into separate inquiries
- useful privately, not ready for synthesis
- abandon