Research and civic life
Literature reviews, a thesis, a story file, oral histories and a book club’s season.
Recipessix recipes
- 46 A literature reviewFor a PhD student with a literature review chapter dueTurn ninety half-read papers into a review: a section per paper checked against the source, evidence tables across each theme, and a synthesis in your words.
- 47 A thesis research baseFor a history PhD candidate starting to write upKeep a history thesis as a shelf: each chapter’s argument at the top of its page, and the evidence, objections and supervisor’s decisions one click below.
- 48 An investigative story fileFor a reporter looking into how a city contract was awardedKeep an investigation in one private file, where every fact carries its record and every claim stays open until a primary source confirms it.
- 49 An oral history collectionFor a volunteer cataloguing a town’s oral history interviewsThirty-one interviews nobody could search, catalogued: time-coded summaries, the narrators’ own words, and an index that finds every flood and foreman.
- 50 A book club guideFor the organiser of a library book club, ten books a yearYour assistant researches the author, the era and the reviews and drafts the questions; you pick the best, write the welcome and send one link per meeting.
- 51 A forecasting studyFor someone practising forecasting on one hard questionPick one question a prediction market is forecasting, pin its rules, find the base rate, weigh every piece of evidence, and log each change to your forecast.