The Question Boundary Sheet is a planning tool for an editorial exercise. It does not determine public policy or measure public opinion. The fictional example concerns a community room with two available evening slots and three proposed activities, creating a small, inspectable scheduling question.
01
Write the boundary first
The sheet begins with decision, fixed facts, options and exclusions. Decision: choose two activities for a one-week trial. Fixed facts: Tuesday and Thursday each have one slot. Options: reading group R, repair demonstration D and board-game evening G. Exclusions: no decision about permanent funding or future weeks. These boundaries matter because an argument about long-term budgets would answer a different question. The example assumes all three activities can use either slot; that assumption should remain visible.
02
Map reasons to options
Make a row for each proposed pair: R plus D, R plus G, and D plus G. Add columns for the claimed benefit, supporting material and unresolved question. A fictional contributor favours R plus D because it includes discussion and a demonstration. That is a stated preference, not evidence of greater attendance. Another favours D plus G because both include practical participation. The sheet records each reason without inventing survey results or converting an editor’s interpretation into a community consensus.
03
Close with the missing information
Before any real decision, an organiser would need information about accessibility, staffing and actual availability. In the exercise, mark all three as unknown rather than awarding made-up scores. The finished worksheet contains three feasible pairs under the stated assumptions and three categories of missing information. Participants can disagree about priorities while seeing the same boundary. A closing note should record what changed in their understanding, including whether a new fact would require rewriting the original question.
Illustrative reference for CivicDebate. The example is fictional. Scroll the diagram horizontally on smaller screens.
