Module 8 · Reporting, Ethics and Practice
8.2 Recording Reasoning, Not Just Conclusions
8 min read
Module 3.6 established the standard: reasonable skill and care, judged on whether you went about it properly rather than on whether you were right. That standard is applied to a file, years later, by people who were not there. The practical question is therefore not what you knew but what the file can still show — and most files show conclusions and almost nothing about how they were reached.
Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Identify what a file must contain to reconstruct reasoning without its author.
- Record decisions not to do something, as decisions.
- Manage revisions and versions so amendments are defensible.
- Retain records for the period that actually matters.
Key terms
- Contemporaneous record
- Made at the time rather than reconstructed later. Carries substantially more weight, and is the reason to write things on site.
- Negative decision
- A recorded decision NOT to investigate something, with the reasoning. Distinguishes a judgement from an oversight.
- Version control
- Dated, identified revisions with a record of what changed and why. An amended report with no such record is difficult to defend.
- Reconstruction test
- Whether someone could rebuild your reasoning from the file alone, years later, without you. The practical standard for retention.
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