Exercise 3: sample answer

Take the claim "X invented the bicycle". Questions: First what? (first with pedals, first practical, first mass-produced, first in one country). What is the evidence: a patent, a dated report, a surviving machine, or a later recollection? Who made the claim, and how long after the event? Is there independent confirmation, for example from a newspaper of the time? Does the claim serve a local or national pride? Did the machine actually work, and was it ridden by anyone other than its maker? Only after these are answered should the claim be repeated, and then with a qualifier.