Safeguard 19 Exact Historical-Claim Worksheet

Operational tool 1 of 12 for Safeguard 19.

Use this worksheet before gathering quotations. Its purpose is to turn a broad impression into a claim that evidence can prove, qualify, or overturn.

A. The proposed claim

• [ ] Write the claim in one sentence.
• [ ] Name the person, body, school, or community.
• [ ] Give the date or bounded period.
• [ ] Name the work, act, confession, translation, or edition.
• [ ] State the exact proposition attributed to the source.
• [ ] Identify the object of every important predicate.
• [ ] Define any modern analytical term used in the claim.

Draft claim:
[Enter the one-sentence claim.]

B. Narrow every collective noun

Replace broad labels unless a collective claim can be demonstrated.

• "The Reformers" becomes [named writers, churches, or documents].
• "The Reformed" becomes [named period, region, confession, or authors].
• "The church" becomes [specific communion, assembly, court, or reception body].
• "Modern textual criticism" becomes [named edition, editor, school, or model].

Controlled subject:
[Enter the exact historical subject.]

C. Identify claim type

Mark one primary type and any secondary type.

• [ ] Direct quotation claim
• [ ] Contextual paraphrase
• [ ] Necessary historical inference
• [ ] Probable historical inference
• [ ] Synthetic claim across several sources
• [ ] Reception-history claim
• [ ] Continuity or discontinuity claim
• [ ] Claim about motive or intention

A motive claim requires direct evidence. A synthetic claim requires disclosure of material exceptions.

D. State what would disprove or lower the claim

• [ ] A contrary statement in the same work
• [ ] Development elsewhere in the corpus
• [ ] A different adopted text
• [ ] Period usage inconsistent with the proposed sense
• [ ] A stronger reconstruction of the controversy
• [ ] Competent contrary contemporary reception
• [ ] Source or edition error
• [ ] Translation ambiguity

Disconfirmation conditions:
[List the evidence that would require revision.]

E. Define the evidentiary minimum

Before making the claim public, require:

1. an identified primary text;
2. verified wording or a disclosed source limitation;
3. local and whole-work context;
4. document-type control;
5. period usage where a key term is disputed;
6. contrary evidence search;
7. a confidence label;
8. separation of historical report from theological judgment.

F. Final controlled form

Use this sentence pattern:

In [identified document and date],

asserts [exact proposition] concerning [exact object] in order to [documented purpose or controversy]. The claim is [express / necessarily inferred / probable], subject to [qualifications], with [confidence label].

Final claim:
[Enter the controlled claim.]

Stop rules

Do not publish if:

• the claim still relies on an undefined collective noun;
• the source has not been identified;
• a modern label is doing the work of the evidence;
• quotation and inference are not distinguished;
• or no contrary-evidence search has been recorded.

Study This Safeguard Further

Read Meaning Before Modern Use and use the Document-Type and Meaning-Control Sheet next.

Toolkit navigation

Toolkit: Safeguard 19 Historical Meaning Toolkit
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