Airtable Fields

These are the actual sentences or paragraphs from your draft that you are fact checking.

This is an auto-incrementing ID. You don’t need to do anything with this, it is just used to keep all your records in their original order and reference records even when the title changes.

This is an auto-incrementing number that is used in the formula for DSL ID. Note: if/when you delete records (including the example rows) it won’t start over from 1, it will keep going from whatever the highest number was that you deleted. That’s fine, you don’t need to do anything.

Use the category and sub-category to code your story line however it makes sense to you - by topic, section, both or nothing. For example I’ll sometimes do “Anecdote” or “Background” for the main category and then “Section 2” or “Conclusion” for the sub-categories.

Can further break down the type (i.e. public official sources, community sources) or be used to organize by topic (i.e. data topics, different general ideas)

Link to records in your Facts table or add new ones here.

This is the total number of facts linked to from this draft story line.

The number of facts linked to from this Draft Story Line that are not already listed as “Checked - Accurate” in the “FC Status” field on the Facts table.

The number of facts linked to from this Draft Story Line that are listed as “Changed - Needs Attention” in the “FC Status” field on the Facts table.

Checkbox to select once you have finished writing/assigning all fact statements to this Draft Story Line in Step 1.

This shows the “FC Status” field for all linked records from the Facts database.

Optional checkbox to keep track of Draft Story Line records you changed during Step 3.

Use this field to make any misc. notes and/or keep track of previous version of a Draft Story Line if you change the language during Step 3.

A clear and simple sentence that states one fact in support of a story line.

This is an auto-incrementing ID. You don’t need to do anything with this, it is just used to keep all your records in their original order and reference records even when the title changes.

This is an auto-incrementing number that is used in the formula for DSL ID. Note: if/when you delete records (including the example rows) it won’t start over from 1, it will keep going from whatever the highest number was that you deleted. That’s fine, you don’t need to do anything.

Use the category and sub-category to code your facts however it makes sense to you - by topic, section, both or nothing.

Can further break down the type (i.e. public official sources, community sources) or be used to organize by topic (i.e. data topics, different general ideas)

This is a select list to keep track of the status of this fact throughout the process. Use the "Changed - Needs Attention" field to indicate if you have to change anything about the fact from the way it was initially written during Step 2. During the next step you'll update the draft sentences and you can then change the status to "Checked-Accurate."

Link to records in your Sources table or add new ones here.

Use this field to write any additional context from the sources that are relevant to this fact. This could be the page number where this fact is found in a public record listed on the Sources table, a timestamp to look for in the otter transcription, etc. You can also include any misc. notes here.

List an ongoing questions or concerns you have with this fact, i.e. do you need to talk it over with your reporting partner? Do you need to remember to phrase something a specific way?

Optional: Use this field to record the old versions of any facts once you change them so you can keep track of things.

Records from the Draft Story Line table that link to this fact. This will work both directions, however try to link from Draft Story Lines to the Facts table in order to follow the tutorial steps.

Records from the Final Story Lines table that link to this fact.

The total number of Draft Story Lines linked to this fact.

The total number of Final Story Lines linked to this fact.

Give your source record a title that is easy to remember.

This is an auto-incrementing ID. You don’t need to do anything with this, it is just used to keep all your records in their original order and reference records even when the title changes.

This is an auto-incrementing number that is used in the formula for DSL ID. Note: if/when you delete records (including the example rows) it won’t start over from 1, it will keep going from whatever the highest number was that you deleted. That’s fine, you don’t need to do anything.

Optional but slightly different than categories in other tables. We only have one category level in this table. Think about how you want to view your resulting data and categorize accordingly. For example, do you want to be able to see how many sentences/facts rely on interviews? Public records? Data?

Provide the URL (if available) to view the underlying record (like a Google Drive file of a report). If you have multiple links for the same source, either just link to the main one or list them all out in the Source Notes field instead.

Use this field for any high-level notes. Try to keep it to only what we need to know about the source as a whole rather than any fact-specific info, which you can keep in the Facts table.

All facts that are linked to this source from the Facts table.

The total number of facts from the Facts table that are linked to this source.

The Draft Story Lines attached to any facts that are attributed to this source.

The Final Story Lines attached to any facts that are attributed to this source.

These are the actual sentences or paragraphs from your final draft that you are fact checking.

This is an auto-incrementing ID. You don’t need to do anything with this, it is just used to keep all your records in their original order and reference records even when the title changes.

This is an auto-incrementing number that is used in the formula for DSL ID. Note: if/when you delete records (including the example rows) it won’t start over from 1, it will keep going from whatever the highest number was that you deleted. That’s fine, you don’t need to do anything.

Same deal as Draft Story Line and Fact categories. Use this and the sub-category field to organize your records however you want.

Same deal as Draft Story Line and Fact categories. Use this and the category field to organize your records however you want.

Link to records in your Facts table or add new ones here.

Checkbox to select once you have finished writing/assigning all fact statements to this Draft Story Line in Step 1.

Use this field to make any misc. notes and/or keep track of previous version of a Final Story Line if you change the language during Step 3.

The number of facts linked to this Final Story Line which have a FC Status of “Changed - Needs Attention”