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Asking Good Questions in Explore

The quality of your questions directly affects the quality of the answers you get. Here are tips for getting the most out of Explore.

Be specific​

Vague questions get vague answers. The more specific you are, the more useful the response.

Less effectiveMore effective
"What's in these letters?""What do the letters tell us about John Smith's business relationship with William Jones?"
"Tell me about the 1930s""What do the financial records reveal about how the farm coped during the Great Depression?"
"Who are the people mentioned?""Who were the key people involved in the dispute over the eastern field?"

Ask one thing at a time​

Multi-part questions get multi-part answers that can be hard to follow. Break complex questions into a series of simpler ones.

Instead of: "Who was involved in the land dispute, what was the outcome, and how did it affect the family's finances?"

Try:

  1. "Who was involved in the land dispute?"
  2. "What was the outcome of the dispute?"
  3. "Did the dispute affect the family's finances? What do the records suggest?"

Use follow-up questions​

Explore remembers the conversation, so you can dig deeper step by step:

  1. "What was the main theme of the correspondence in the 1920s?"
  2. "You mentioned financial difficulties — which documents mention this?"
  3. "What was the nature of the financial difficulties? Who were they indebted to?"

Ask for evidence​

If you want to verify a claim the AI makes, ask it directly:

"Which specific document says that?" "Can you quote the relevant passage?" "Are there any documents that contradict this?"

Useful question types​

  • Factual: "Where did John Smith work between 1920 and 1930?"
  • Relational: "What was the relationship between John and Mary Smith?"
  • Chronological: "How did the family's situation change between the 1910s and 1940s?"
  • Thematic: "What recurring themes appear in the personal correspondence?"
  • Comparative: "How do the formal business letters compare in tone to the personal ones?"
  • Gap-finding: "Are there any notable absences in the records — periods with no correspondence?"

When Explore struggles​

Explore works from what's in the documents. It will struggle when:

  • The relevant documents haven't been OCR'd (scanned but unreadable)
  • The question requires knowledge outside your archive
  • The documents are ambiguous or contradictory

In these cases, the AI will tell you it's uncertain or can't find sufficient evidence — which is itself useful information.