[ MPS/0.1 · practical guide ]
Source, interpretation, speculation: what is the difference?
Reliable writing does not eliminate interpretation. It makes the transition from what a source says, to what the author infers, to what might be possible visible to the reader.
Source
What is reported or measured
A document, data set, observation, or primary record says something. Quote it accurately and preserve its own conditions, date, and limits.
Interpretation
What follows, if the reasoning holds
An author relates evidence to a question, chooses a framing, or weighs competing explanations. The reasoning can be valuable without being a direct property of the source.
Speculation
What could be true, but is not established
A hypothesis, scenario, analogy, or future possibility. It belongs in serious work when it is named as such and never silently upgraded into a finding.
A simple test while writing
Ask “where does this sentence come from?” If the answer is a source, identify it. If the answer is your reasoning, use language that signals inference: “this suggests,” “one interpretation is,” or “under this assumption.” If the answer is a possibility, say “could,” “may,” “hypothesis,” or “illustrative.”
Then ask “what would make it wrong?” The answer belongs near the statement. A strong boundary makes later correction easier; it does not weaken a well-supported argument.
How MPS represents the distinction
MPS uses status labels to prevent a document from presenting every sentence with the same voice of certainty. A verified or sourced statement records a different condition from a boundary statement describing an open question, or an illustrative example that intentionally makes no claim about the world.
Useful public labels
Verified, sourced, boundary, illustrative, and unverified can describe the condition of a claim without pretending to resolve the underlying debate.
A necessary caution
A label is only as honest as the process behind it. Readers should still follow important claims to their cited sources and examine the evidence themselves.
A worked example of boundaries
The Mayon Volcano educational project treats terrain, historical sources, inferred volcanic interiors, and hazard illustrations as different kinds of information. Its methodology page explains that an educational model can locate, visualize, and prompt questions without becoming a live warning system or an underground scan.
Read Mayon’s methodology and limits ↗[ MPS learning center ]
Learn the practice before using the tool.
Claim-level provenance
What must travel with a claim for it to remain inspectable.
Citing AI-assisted research
How disclosure, citations, and source limits work together.
Source, interpretation, speculation
A practical way to separate evidence from judgement.
MPS is a self-published framework and audit aid. It does not certify truth, replace primary-source review, or make an AI output authoritative.