Separate the excerpt from the claim
Use a short passage from your own project handout, a public report or another source you are allowed to inspect. Record which words are clearly readable. If the only reference is a screenshot, first check its wording with the screenshot-text guide.
Write down what you are trying to recover: the document containing the passage. That is narrower than proving that the passage is correct or that the document describes the current version of a product.
Build the query from known details
Google documents quotation marks for an exact phrase, filetype: for a file format and site: for a specific site or domain. Operators should have no space after the colon. Source
An illustrative starting query is "public workshop schedule" filetype:pdf. These example words are invented; replace them with your checked excerpt. Add a known publisher’s domain through the site field only when that scope is justified. Do not guess a domain and later describe the search as unrestricted.
If the phrase returns nothing, shorten only the uncertain wording and record the change. An OCR error inside quotation marks can make the query more restrictive than intended. Keep a clearly marked original transcription so you do not accidentally quote your corrected search wording as the source.
Inspect the PDF itself
Open the actual result rather than relying on its search description. Record these details:
| Check | Useful evidence | Remaining question |
|---|---|---|
| Document identity | Title and named publisher | Is this the intended report? |
| Version | Edition, revision or stated date | Is a newer version available? |
| Passage | Page and surrounding paragraph | Does it preserve qualifications? |
| Location | Actual document address | Is this a publisher copy or a mirror? |
| Missing material | Unreadable or unavailable pages | What could not be checked? |
A document hosted on a publisher’s domain can still be an old edition. A copy on another domain can preserve useful text without becoming an independent source. Keep both the hosting location and the stated publisher in the note.
Do not turn date filters into an event timeline
Google describes before: and after: in terms of documents last updated. Source If you use them, retain that search constraint separately from dates printed inside the report. Neither a search date nor a revision date automatically establishes when an event occurred.
Finish with the exact document, page and bounded statement it supports. If the file is scanned or its text is incomplete, leave unreadable wording unresolved. The AI source-review checklist helps keep a later generated summary tied to the passage you actually inspected.