Reader tool · Bridge Test

COUNT → BRIDGE → CONSEQUENCE

Use the test when a figure becomes a consequence, or when a stronger sentence is riding on a number. If time is short, start with questions 1 and 4.

COUNTBRIDGECONSEQUENCE

  1. What exactly was counted or measured?

    Fix the unit, population, denominator, period, version, instrument or model, and any relevant legal status before reasoning from the figure.

  2. Who counted it, and in what venue?

    Identify the producing body and the obligation, rule, filing, study, contract or decision setting in which the number operates.

  3. What stronger conclusion is being requested?

    Write the proposed conclusion as a full sentence with a subject and a verb. Do not let the number smuggle the sentence in.

  4. What bridge is required?

    Name the rule, strategy, model, formula, classification or evidentiary chain that connects the count to the requested conclusion, then check whether it is actually present.

  5. Who receives the consequence?

    Identify the downstream person or group and ask whether they are present, represented or informed where the bridge is applied.

  6. What could narrow, falsify, correct, appeal or revoke the bridge?

    State the corrective condition and the route by which the operative conclusion can be contested or changed.

No-time question

What is this a number of?

That question forces the unit, population, denominator, period or measurement object into view before the argument advances.

Bounded verdict

The result is not merely true or false.

The test can support a conclusion fully in its venue, make it conditional, narrow or correct it, recognize that it remains operative with institutional force, or show that it has been rejected, revoked or withdrawn.

Discipline

Preserve the count

Do not attack a number merely because the requested conclusion is too strong. The count and the bridge are separate objects.

Run it on the claim

Test the sentence, not the character or motives of the person making it.

Run question 1 on your own side

The method is symmetrical. A favored number still needs a defined object and an explicit bridge.