Before the arc
How to read a phase
Every phase of research can be described the same five ways. Together they say what to hand the AI, what to keep, and what to watch for.
The research arc
Eight phases, four you'll practice today
Color shows how much AI’s typical role in each phase displaces your own reasoning. Select a phase to see its five dimensions.
The question
Selected question and prediction
Same question, six tools
Every endpoint received the identical question, word for word.
Retrieval endpoints
Generate first, then compare
The human synthesis was written before any AI output existed.
Syntheses
The same connector, two displacement levels
Fetching a passage you then read leaves the judgment with you. Asking for a summary of your library hands it over.
Citation traceability
Do the tools lead to the same place?
Each question is one dot. The hollow dot is the prediction written before any data existed; the solid dot is what happened.
Convergence Map
Name the risk, then design around it
Eight terms for what can go wrong, each with an example from research work and how strong the evidence is.
Safeguards
One page, one habit
Download the handout. Before you open the next tool, write your prediction first.