The certainty of the catalogue
An original catalogue note for an invented sound archive.
Yard recording 7: voices beside the crane, 08:40–08:46
Six minutes. Four speakers. One working morning preserved.
| Time on recording | Catalogue entry |
|---|---|
| 08:40:12 | A request for more rope — speaker confirmed |
| 08:41:03 | A delivery count is repeated — speaker likely |
| 08:44:51 | A short reply beneath machinery noise — speaker unidentified |
The heading looks exact because the writing on the recording box supplies the place and times. It does not supply every name.
In this catalogue, confirmed means that the name on the box agrees with a later interview. Likely means that clues in the conversation point towards one person, but do not prove the identification. Unidentified means that the recording does not provide enough evidence for us to decide.
Do not let a timestamp impersonate certainty. It tells us when a sound occurs on the recording, not who made it. We have left doubtful words as “[unclear]”, although a tempting guess would make the transcript smoother. Further evidence may allow us to revise it.
How does the writer first make the catalogue seem authoritative and then reveal the limits of what it can establish?
382 exam-style questions on WJEC GCSE English Language 3.1.3 Short and extended response question types. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.