Which One Is Real?
Reconstruct the edit history of a deliberately chaotic file package and argue which version is authoritative, on grounds you can state
Version 1.2 · Supersedes v1.1 · Status: CURRENT
- v1.1: Added the download link for the real file package.
- v1.0: Line-edited for consistency with the rest of the course.
Due: 9 April 2027 · Weight: 30%
Follows week 6. Due 5pm Friday of week 7.
The brief#
You are given the contents of one folder. Reconstruct what happened to it, then say which file is the real one and why.
Download the file package. It
contains an incident report in several states, across two people’s file
systems: several .docx revisions, two PDFs, an autosave artefact, a
screenshot, a lock file, and a copy that arrived as an email attachment. The
metadata is intact and it is not consistent. Some of it was produced by
ordinary work and some by copying, syncing and exporting. Nothing in the
package is labelled.
Two things are being assessed and they are separable. The timeline is forensic: what happened, in what order, supported by timestamps, formats, sizes, filenames and content. The verdict is not forensic. Deciding which file is authoritative means choosing a ground (possession, position, recency, consensus) and defending it. A timeline with no verdict is incomplete. A verdict with no ground is an assertion, and recency on its own is the weakest available ground, so if that is all the package supports, say that in those words.
You will not resolve all of it. Some of the evidence contradicts itself, deliberately. An answer that reaches a defensible verdict and marks the two things it could not establish is stronger than one that resolves everything by quietly picking whichever reading was convenient.
What you submit#
One document: the timeline, then the verdict. Reference files by their exact filenames. State inferences as inferences: “the mtime precedes the creation time, so this was copied here rather than authored here” is an inference with its evidence attached, and that is the form the whole timeline should take.
The week 6 lab carries a smaller version of this task that shows you the answer and the reasoning afterwards. This assessment does not.
The spec
The brief poses the problem and leaves room for a response. The spec is the fixed part: what a marker checks. Some lines can be checked mechanically; the rest call for judgement.
- a reconstructed timeline of the package, ordered, with the evidence for each placement named
- one file identified as authoritative, with the ground for that claim stated
- at least one competing candidate addressed and ruled out on stated grounds
- every inference marked as an inference, and every gap in the evidence marked as a gap
How it is marked
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Timeline supported by evidence in the files | 40% |
| The authoritative version, and the ground argued for it | 40% |
| Uncertainty stated where the evidence runs out | 20% |