Edition 2.0. Reviewed September 17, 2026. A complete free practice workbook from CreatorHQ.
1. Start with a question you can verify
A research answer is useful when you can trace its important claims back to suitable evidence. This starter teaches one small decision: which of two fictional printers can meet a stated job specification? You will separate a source's claim from your conclusion, catch an outdated price and keep an unresolved deadline unresolved.
Open Perplexity and use its displayed access or sign-in options. Confirm the intended account and review its settings. Start a new thread. Provider plans and usage limits are separate from this free CreatorHQ workbook; record the date and mode shown rather than expecting a fixed allowance or model name. No paid research mode, upload or connector is needed. If access is unavailable, complete the same ledger manually.
Perplexity's product explanation describes web answers with links to sources. Treat those links as leads to inspect, not guarantees that every sentence is supported. Do not paste supplier contracts, private quotes or customer details into a beginner experiment. The packet below is entirely fictional.
2. Use a controlled evidence packet first
All Alder Print and Beacon Press records are fictional practice material. They are not current supplier recommendations or real web citations. The job needs 100 A5 flyers, color on both sides, collected Friday September 25. Tax treatment and paper stock must be confirmed before ordering. No order has been approved.
Copy this source packet
S1 - Alder approved price sheet, dated September 10, 2026:
100 A5 flyers, color both sides: $38 before tax.
Pickup availability must be confirmed. Paper stock not specified.
S2 - Alder archived flyer, dated March 2025:
100 A5 flyers: $29. Sides, tax and paper not specified.
S3 - Beacon current price sheet, dated September 12, 2026:
100 A5 flyers, color one side: $34 before tax.
Second side adds $8 per 100. Paper stock not specified.
S4 - Beacon service notice, dated September 14, 2026:
Friday collection may be available after artwork approval.
No specific customer's collection date is confirmed here.
Constraint: Only S1-S4 may support this practice comparison.Comparison prompt
Use S1-S4 only. Compare 100 A5 double-sided color flyers.
Return supplier, comparable before-tax price, calculation,
supporting source IDs and unresolved requirements.
Separate an archived claim from a current price. Do not treat
a general availability statement as our confirmed collection.
Recommend only the next verification step, not a purchase.Reference comparison
| Supplier | Comparable price | Evidence | Not confirmed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alder | $38 before tax | S1 | Friday collection and paper |
| Beacon | $42 before tax | S3: $34 + $8 | Friday collection, artwork approval and paper |
Alder is $4 lower on these supplied comparable prices. Neither supplier has confirmed the required collection, and neither specifies paper stock. The next step is to request those details, not to order from Alder automatically. S2 is both older and incomplete; its $29 is not a valid current double-sided comparison.
3. Build a claim-to-source ledger
Copy this structure whenever an AI answer matters to a decision. "Has a citation" is not enough; the linked passage must support the exact claim, including its conditions.
| Proposed claim | Source check | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Alder double-sided price is $38 before tax | S1 states specification and price | Supported by the practice packet |
| Beacon costs $34 double-sided | S3 requires an $8 addition | Contradicted; correct to $42 |
| Alder costs $29 today | S2 is archived and incomplete | Not supported as current |
| Beacon guarantees Friday pickup | S4 is conditional, not a booking | Not supported |
| Alder uses recycled paper | No source states this | Unknown |
In a live ledger, replace S1 with the actual page title, full link, publisher, publication or revision date if shown, access date and a short passage note. Use "date not shown" when needed. A recently accessed old document does not become a newly published price list.
Critique prompt
Audit this draft against S1-S4:
"Choose Alder: $29 today, recycled paper and guaranteed Friday
pickup. Beacon is $34 for the same job."
List each unsupported or contradicted claim, supporting evidence
or missing source, and a corrected decision statement.Reference correction: current comparable prices are Alder $38 and Beacon $42 before tax; paper and the requested collection remain unconfirmed. No purchase decision is justified until those requirements are checked. Four claims in the bad draft fail: $29 current price, recycled paper, guaranteed pickup and $34 comparable Beacon price.
4. Transfer the method to one public question
Now try a small real research task that does not require private data: "How does Stripe describe creating a one-time Payment Link?" This is a feature-verification exercise, not financial or tax advice and not a request to create a link.
Live research prompt
Find Stripe's official documentation for creating a one-time
Payment Link. Link the exact official page. Summarize only:
the Dashboard starting point, product/price choice, and whether
a one-time price differs from a recurring subscription price.
Separate source statements from your interpretation. Mark anything
not established by the page as unknown. Do not create anything.Open the returned link yourself and confirm its domain is docs.stripe.com. The official creation guide is a starting reference checked for this edition. Verify the current wording and note when you checked it. A model answer may be different or stale; the source, not this workbook, establishes today's provider interface.
Expected method: identify the official page, find the relevant product/pricing section and confirm one-off versus recurring distinctions. Reject answers supported only by an affiliate review, a search snippet or an inaccessible page. If you cannot open the source, mark the claim unverified rather than pretending it was checked. A blocked page is a limitation, not evidence against the feature.
5. Ask follow-ups that reduce uncertainty
Return to the fictional printing job. A useful supplier question is narrow enough to answer and includes the specification that affects price.
Reference enquiry: We are comparing 100 A5 flyers in color on both sides for collection Friday September 25. Could you confirm the available paper stock, the current before-tax price, any additional charges, the artwork approval cutoff and whether that collection date can be agreed? We have not placed an order.
Do not say "as agreed" or "please proceed": nothing has been agreed. Do not ask the AI to email the supplier as part of this starter. If a real reply comes back, save its date and exact specification, reconcile changes against the earlier sheet and obtain your purchasing approval separately.
Test two failure cases. If the next answer supplies a price with no source, request the source and leave the number unverified meanwhile. If two current official pages conflict, show both with dates and scope; ask the provider to resolve the conflict. Choosing whichever number supports your preferred decision is not research.
6. Close the research with a decision record
Your one-page handoff should contain the question, must-have requirements, checked facts, unknowns, source ledger, next owner action and review date. Save the original source links outside the chat. Do not share a research thread if it contains information recipients should not see.
For the practice job, the record reads: two comparable prices established; $4 difference; no confirmed Friday collection; paper unspecified; request written confirmation from both suppliers before ordering. Review again if the specification, price sheet or required date changes. It is entirely reasonable for useful research to end with "not enough evidence yet."
Track total minutes spent searching, opening sources, correcting and writing the record. A fast generated summary that needs extensive repair may not save time. Keep the method if it produces a clearer decision, not because it produces more citations.
Your completed starter
You have a comparable-price table, a five-claim evidence ledger, four diagnosed false claims, a supplier enquiry and a decision record. These are complete and free. The separate Perplexity member workbook expands into a fuller supplier-research workflow with additional evidence checks. It is optional, not an unlock for missing answers here.
Sources and review notes
Perplexity official entry point: account access and current options.
How Perplexity works: cited web answers and plan-dependent capabilities.
Stripe Payment Link creation: official source for the optional public research question.
Reviewed September 17, 2026. Supplier names, prices and excerpts are invented teaching data; no supplier was contacted or order placed.