A digit that can lead a finger to a page
A footnote or a bracket (textbook, p. 41) says: you will find it here. When a digit leads into emptiness, it is a fake citation in another coat. 학교 has different patterns: a bracket, a line, a list at the back. A detective does not care which font. It cares whether a finger arrives. Today you take five points from the project and dress them in the pattern a teacher wants. If they want none, you still have a source card. If they want an exact pattern, do not take a pattern from chat blindly — take a pattern from the brief or a school sheet. A model likes to invent an academic line that does not apply at yours. A teacher applies. Honesty is a finger. Form is a coat. A coat with no finger is carnival again.
Adam lets chat “make APA citations”. They look learned. Ema compares with the brief: the teacher only wanted a textbook title and a page. APA is outside the year and one item is dead. They delete. They write: (Geography 6, p. 41). A finger arrives. The teacher nods. Adam gets that a learned coat with no brief is the same impression as a study with no study. Ema numbers 1, 2, 3 from the card. Under the line three rows she can show. No fourth line “ChatGPT 5”. That would lead a finger into a window a teacher does not want as a source.
Read the pattern brief out loud before you ask a model for a format. A model likes to bring a foreign university.
A finger, a coat, a ban on a fourth line
A finger: a page, an atlas, the date a website was opened. A coat: how the teacher writes it. A ban: a chatbot, general knowledge, a dead book. When a model formats, you check the content of the item, not only commas in APA. Nice commas on a lie are more dangerous, because they lull. A detective reads the item: can I open it? Yes. Only then commas. Helper later paraphrases sentences. Today only a wrap of sources. Do not rush to pretty Word. Paper with numbers 1–3 is enough when a finger arrives.
A simple coat that often suffices at school.
In the text: The Vltava flows into the Elbe (1). Under the line:
- Geography 6, p. 41.
- World atlas, p. 12.
- Article Vltava, link XYZ, opened 12 May (checked with a textbook).
A bad line:
- ChatGPT.
- Novák 1998 (dead).
- “The internet.”
Do not copy an academic pattern you do not get only because it sounds like secondary school. A finger > a font.
Why this right now
You are in the course Ask with Martin, level Detective. You work in a chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) — same game, different brand. No code. A parent or the school creates the account. A child’s email does not belong here.
This is not the 인벤터 level. There you build a chatbot on your own website. Here you are a user: a question, a check, a citation.
You will know this lesson by one sentence: A footnote must lead a finger to a seen source. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have got the core. The rest is practice, not magic.
Tomorrow’s finale defends the whole of Detective. A line is visible honesty. Without it a source card stays in a drawer and in the text water again.
Four things you will build in this course
The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only what this lesson can do.
🏫 A report with citations
An outline, three sources that exist, and a sentence in your own words. AI must not be the only author.
Lines belong to the report project. Three numbers, three sources.
📝 Test training
Coach role: let it ask, do not let it say the answer. You count / answer yourself.
A quiz does not need lines.
📅 Family planner
Tasks for the week (not passwords, not marks). A parent sees the plan, not your chat.
Planner: a date source in brackets (school portal), an analogy.
📜 An AI code for the class
Seven short rules on a poster. No horror — a how-to.
Code: “No digit with no finger.”
Workshop: three lines, three fingers
Take the card from the project. Dress it in the brief pattern, or in the simple coat from the lesson. Point with a finger at three things on the table.
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Read what pattern the teacher wants. If there is none, the simple coat.
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Three items from the card. No fourth AI.
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By each item physically show the source (a book, an atlas, an opened website).
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When chat offers APA, take only the order, check the content. Dead ones gone.
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In the notebook a pattern you will really use. Not a university from the window.
Practice: does a finger arrive?
Yes/no. Fix the item.
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(1) ChatGPT 5.
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(2) Geography 6, p. 41 — a book on the desk.
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(3) Novák 1998 — the catalogue is silent.
Now you 💪
Go through three checks. At each one tick in your head: can I see it, or not?
- Three lines lead to the table, not to a logo.
- The pattern is from the brief, not from a foreign university blindly.
- You do not leave nice commas on a dead book.
If something is missing, go back to the steps above. This is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so you go on sure, not confused.
Check: You can point with a finger from three footnotes to three seen sources.
What to take from this lesson
- A finger > a learned coat.
- Read the pattern brief out loud.
- A fourth line chatbot no.
- A pretty fake lulls.
- A simple write-up is enough when it is true.
- The names in the examples (Adam, Ema) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo here.
- Next lesson: When you can do this, go to the next lesson in the same level.
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