Escritoire/Search

The Escritoire search facility enables claims to be located by faceted search.  The search parameters that can be set are:

Discussion:  a particular topic of discussion that may provide background context for claims.

Field:  the broad general field with which cases supporting or rebutting the claim may be associated.  See Writing/Fields for more information.

Level: an indication of the conceptual hierarchy of claims.  Claims that start a new discussion (i.e. that do not have any antecedent arguments) are level 1.  Any new claims that are generated in their grounds or warrant are level 2.  Subsequent claims are the level of their ancestor plus one.

Keywords:  words that might occur in the claim searched for.  The search is fairly lax and not all words must occur for claims to be presented.

Mine: when logged in, only claims authored by you may be selected.

Clicking the ‘Search’ button with the default parameter settings (i.e. Discussion: All, Field: All, Level: 1, Keywords: empty) will identify all of the conceptually highest level claims (that were used to initiate arguments in Pacisco) and is a good starting point for general browsing of the content.

Interface Detail

Discussion, Field, and Level are selected by pulling down and clicking on the required item.

To enter Keywords, click on the editable box and type words separated by spaces.

To select Mine, click the check-box.

When parameters have been set, click the Search button.  A listing of found claims will be presented in the Reader window, tagged with their level (and appropriately indented).  Claims can then be clicked to view their arguments.