SOMATRY

Reading records

Ask What a Document Was Made to Do

Read a fictional receipt, roster or log according to its original purpose before using it to support a wider theory.

The question the record answers

A document usually begins with a practical job: record a payment, assign a shift, acknowledge a delivery or preserve a message. Start by naming that job in one sentence. Then distinguish the information needed for that job from the information you wish the record contained. A receipt may establish that a payment was recorded without establishing who physically used the purchased item later. Its usefulness is bounded by what it was designed to capture.

Worked example: the collected parcel

Imagine a fictional dispatch slip marked collected at 16:20. A reader concludes that its named customer stood at the counter then. The slip may instead identify the account charged, while a different person collected the parcel. Look for a collector's signature, an authorization note or another record connecting the account holder to the visit. Until then, write parcel collected under this account rather than customer seen at counter.

Use the limit productively

A limited record is not a useless record. Keep the collection time if it is supported, and leave identity open. In your Somatry notes, separate the event from the person you are trying to attach to it. That creates a precise next question: which source identifies the collector? You can then search the fictional case materials for that connection instead of treating the document's printed name as an answer to a question it never set out to ask.