# Notice what a passage leaves unstated without filling it in

An omission can prompt a useful question. It can also tempt you to invent information the passage never supplies. Record the gap and keep your explanation provisional.

# Copy this small checklist in your own words

1. Location: page, chapter and a nearby scene cue.
2. Stated detail: what the passage actually provides.
3. Missing detail: what you cannot find in that passage.
4. My possible explanation: explicitly label it as a guess.
5. Next check: the earlier or later passage I will inspect within my current reading boundary.

# An invented case

Page72: a character arrives with a sealed parcel. The passage describes the ribbon but does not say who sent it. “The host sent it” is a guess, not an observation. Next check: reread the preceding conversation for a sender’s name.

Do not treat absence from one passage as absence from the whole book. A question can remain open after the check.

# A note that survives the next session

Keep the observation and your guess on separate lines in an optional private note. A Clue mark can serve as a return address. TabMap does not infer missing facts or supply interpretations. Before sharing, check the agreed chapter boundary manually and use a scene cue for other editions.

# Optional app companion

I develop Reading Journal: TabMap for iPhone and iPad. You manually record a page, Keep/Felt/Clue/Discuss, intensity and an optional private note. One complete book map is free; the sample does not use that allowance. No app account is required. Reading data stays on-device. Optional anonymous paid-screen diagnostics can be declined or disabled; optional Pro adds unlimited books, custom legends, discussion shares and local backup/restore.

Reading Journal: TabMap on the App Store

Developer and AI disclosure: I develop the app; AI assisted this original reading card. Fictional examples and page numbers are invented. The method also works on paper. No measured reading or memory benefit is claimed.