The Weight of the Evidence · Chapter 12

Part Three · Before the Work Begins

The Question You Are Answering

Objectives, scope and audit questions. Why an engagement that starts with a vague question can never end with a clear conclusion, and how to write a question that survives eight months of fieldwork.

Classic traps from this chapter

  1. The objective determines the approach and design, not the other way round. An option that has the methodology chosen first is wrong.
  2. Normative and analytical objectives are more likely to add value than descriptive ones. The standard says so; do not treat all three as equivalent.
  3. Sub-questions must be collectively exhaustive. A set that leaves part of the overall question unaddressed is badly designed, however good each question is.
  4. Sub-questions must not overlap. Duplication is a design fault, not thoroughness.

Chapter 12 in full

The traps above are how this chapter ends. The chapter itself works the material through first — the reasoning, the sources with their article and paragraph numbers, check-yourself questions with the reasons under them, and flashcards for retrieval practice.

The Weight of the Evidence is the PassEPSO study book for the field-related test of EPSO/AD/428/26: 536 pages in 27 chapters, PDF and EPUB.

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