Introduction

A ‘master file’ is a text document in which you bring together all the notes from your investigation: verbatim quotations and summaries from sources, your own insights and personal accounts. In other words, all the facts you need to substantiate your story. By creating a master file, you gradually work towards your final story. Research and writing happen at the same time. This gives your brain every opportunity to take in and reflect on the material and to become ‘master’ of the subject.

Structure

For a clear overview it is wise to organise the facts in the master file. A good structure for this is the same structure you want to use for the story. The structure of your story can also serve perfectly well as the structure for your research. This is one of the core insights of Story‑Based Inquiry.

1. Open a new text document in MS Word, Apple Pages or Google Docs.
2. Type the key events of the story one after another. If you have created a timeline according to the Story‑Based Inquiry method, you can copy and paste it here. Another structure is also possible, for example a ‘spatial’ structure in which the events are arranged by locations, people and or aspects of the problem.

Now change the style of all the sentences to headings. This makes them stand out as ‘chapters’ in the document. It also immediately creates a table of contents, which makes it easier to navigate the master file.

Facts

After these preparations, the master file is ready to be filled with facts:

• To begin with, of course, quotations from interviews. We only type or paste quotations that we may want to use in the story later — we therefore do not dump all interview notes or the entire transcript into the master file. See the master file as a sieve, as a first selection of the material you have gathered.
• In addition to quoting verbatim, you can also paraphrase others. You then summarise in your own words what you have heard or read. Distinguish in the master file between verbatim quotations and paraphrases by using quotation marks: put verbatim quotations in quotation marks and do not put paraphrases in quotation marks.
• A third form in which facts appear is as excerpts from documents. You can include these in the master file by copying and pasting. Again, you can do this verbatim or in the form of a summary.
• So much for the words of others — we also record our own insights, emotions and observations in the master file — at least if we think we will use them in the final story.
• Finally, we link each fact to a source. By immediately citing sources alongside all facts, the master file becomes a handy reference document for fact‑checkers and lawyers.

How do you record new facts in the master file?

1. Go to the section in the master file where the fact belongs.

2. Start each addition with a source reference: type the name or title of the source and underline it. You can also turn the title or name into a hyperlink to the original document (see box). Strictly speaking, every source is a document. Consider: our information comes from websites and PDFs, text files, data files, images and audio recordings. And if we have interviewed someone, the notes from that interview also constitute a document. You ‘document’ your research.

   <aside> 🔗

   Box: Hyperlinking

   • Web pages and PDF files that are online have a link (URL) that you can copy.
   • For documents in Google Drive, you can obtain a link via the ‘Share’ button.
   • You can add a link to documents on your computer’s hard drive (i.e. not in the cloud) with this tool: linkyourfile.com. This works with any file type, including Excel files and images. From your master file you can therefore link to all kinds of digital documents.
   • If you upload all documents to Google Pinpoint (journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint), you can search your entire archive with Google’s powerful algorithms. And if you add them to Google Notebook (https://notebooklm.google) you can even query them with AI.
   • If you prefer to save web pages as PDFs rather than as URLs, add the PrintFriendly extension (www.printfriendly.com) to your browser. With one click, this turns any web page into a pleasantly readable document. </aside>

3. Type or paste under the source the facts taken from this source.

Notes

• Add to the master file regularly and consistently, for example after each interview, after reading each document or at the end of each working day. In this way you gradually ‘build’ your story. By the time you want to write the final story, you will already have all the facts neatly lined up. As if you were ready for Christmas.