Investigate a Local Question With Real Records
Maps to: Investigative Journalist · Editor, Researcher, Civic Journalist, Data Analyst
You're going to pick a real question with a real answer (how much your school district spends on athletics versus arts, why a local landmark closed, what your city actually does with recycling) and answer it with primary documents, not opinion. The skill is reasoning from evidence: figuring out what the records actually prove versus what you assumed going in, and claiming only what you can defend. That's what investigative journalism actually is, proving something true with evidence, and doing one tells you fast whether chasing the real answer is your kind of work.
The plan
0/4 doneYou're 20% in just for starting, the hardest part. Mark your first step done to keep the momentum.
Pick a specific, answerable question, one where a real number or document exists somewhere. Then find where that answer lives: a budget, a public record, a dataset, a set of meeting minutes. Vague questions ('is my city well-run?') don't work; specific ones ('how much did the district spend on X vs Y last year?') do.
Objective: A specific answerable question + where the answer lives.
- 1
Pick your question: a school-district spending question / why-did-X-close / what-your-city-does-with-Y / a public-records puzzle.
- 2
Identify the specific document or dataset that would answer it.
Your call
Choose a question with a real answer and name where that answer lives, yourself.
Your question + the one document/dataset that would answer it.
What good looks like: Your question is specific enough that a real document could settle it, and you know which document that is.
- Specific + answerable. If no document could settle it, it's an opinion, not an investigation.
- 1
The bar to look back against
A published ~2,500 word piece that answers a real question with primary documents (not opinion), and you can separate what the documents actually support from what you assumed going in. The proof is the work: not 'I have a theory,' but 'I can prove this with the records, and I cut what I couldn't.'
Finish the final step, then submit what you built. Your progress is saved.
Tools you'll use
Steps 2–4 · Gather primary documents + interview
Steps 5–6 · Decide what the evidence supports, then write
Steps 7–8 · Publish + share
How this shows up on a resume or college app
I investigated [topic] using public records and primary sources, separating what the documents actually proved from what I assumed, and published the piece for [N] readers. I learned what journalism requires beyond opinion: you can only claim what you can prove.