Sample: Manuscript Integrity Report

Manuscript: The Cartographer’s Debt
File examined: The_Cartographers_Debt.docx
SHA-256 fingerprint: 59891e10dd0b2005e7e37bfd48597958b9a18e4092effe3d2839374b9ea5d15f
Size: 48,240 bytes
Words / chapters / paragraphs: 5,684 / 9 / 157

Checks run: 2026-10-22 22:17:30 EDT (mia-audit 1.1.1)
Review: checked and approved by Albert Massay, 2026-10-22
Prepared by: Hatchling Media for Tradewinds Brief Services

The fingerprint identifies the exact file examined, so this report can always be matched to it. It does not certify that the manuscript is correct, establish authorship, or show how the work was created.

Summary

Twelve findings need action, six of them High priority: renumber the chapters, restore the end of Chapter Seven, clear three placeholders and two pasted passages. Two findings are intentional. Continuity was not checked.

How to read this report. Verified observations are things a check can establish occur, such as a paragraph that appears twice. Occurring is not the same as being wrong: a refrain can repeat on purpose. Findings requiring review are possibilities a person should look at. Every finding carries a mark: Likely error, Likely intentional or Your call. Locations give the chapter, the paragraph within that chapter, and the paragraph number in the file. Every location is listed in the appendix (full-location appendix).

Verified observations

F001 · High · Likely error

Chapter number 5 is used 2 times (Chapter Five; Chapter Five).

Reviewer: Two chapters are headed ‘Chapter Five’. The second should be ‘Chapter Six’.

• Chapter Five heading (file paragraph 135) — Chapter Five
• Chapter Five heading (file paragraph 148) — Chapter Five

F002 · High · Likely error

Numbering jumps from 5 to 7; missing [6].

Reviewer: Same cause as F001: renumbering the second ‘Chapter Five’ to ‘Chapter Six’ closes this gap.

• Chapter Seven heading (file paragraph 167) — Chapter Seven

F005 · High · Likely error

Matching 40-word sentence appears 2 times in 2 paragraph(s) (matching when capitalization, quotation marks and spacing are ignored).

Reviewer: The narration sentence before Aldrin speaks is an exact copy of his dialogue. Delete the narration copy (Chapter Three, paragraph 20).

• Chapter Three, paragraph 20 (file paragraph 91) — The thing nobody in the Guild of the Salt Reach has ever understood about the Unmapped Mile is …
• Chapter Three, paragraph 29 (file paragraph 100) — “The thing nobody in the Guild of the Salt Reach has ever understood about the Unmapped Mile is …

F006 · High · Likely error

Placeholder “TODO” occurs 1 time(s).

Reviewer: A ‘TODO’ drafting note is still in the text. Write the missing beat and delete the note.

• Chapter Five, paragraph 9 (file paragraph 157) — …TODO: fix map scene — Brannoch’s reaction needs a beat…

F007 · High · Likely error

Placeholder “???” occurs 1 time(s).

Reviewer: ‘???’ is a placeholder for a price. Supply the figure.

• Chapter Two, paragraph 14 (file paragraph 56) — …“More than we have. The price was ??? last time I asked, which is the Guild’s way of sa…

F004 · Medium · Likely error

3 identical sentence(s) (52 words in total) are shared by 2 paragraph(s).

Reviewer: Chapter Seven re-uses three sentences from the Chapter One chart description. Rewrite or cut the Chapter Seven version.

• Chapter One, paragraph 14 (file paragraph 26) — She went back to the chart because she did not know what else to do.
• Chapter Seven, paragraph 1 (file paragraph 168) — She went back to the chart because she did not know what else to do.

F003 · Low · Likely intentional

Identical paragraph appears 2 times (20 words).

Reviewer: The chant is declared intentional by the author (Prologue and Epilogue).

• Prologue, paragraph 1 (file paragraph 6) — Draw the shore as it is, not as you wish it; the sea forgives a liar once, and …
• Epilogue, paragraph 4 (file paragraph 175) — Draw the shore as it is, not as you wish it; the sea forgives a liar once, and …

F008 · Low · Likely error

Rule is curly quotes; 54 straight double and 32 straight single quote marks/apostrophes found in 22 paragraph(s). By chapter: Chapter Four: 22

Reviewer: All of Chapter Four uses straight quotes and apostrophes, probably from a paste. Convert the chapter.

• Chapter Four, paragraph 2 (file paragraph 107) — Every evening Aldric brought the Patience into the lee of the lighthouse spit, and every evening Ysolde and …
• Chapter Four, paragraph 3 (file paragraph 108) — On the first night the Widow’s Tongue ran north from the point. On the second it ran south. …
• Chapter Four, paragraph 4 (file paragraph 109) — “There,” Ottilie breathed. “A channel. A safe channel.”
• Chapter Four, paragraph 5 (file paragraph 110) — “Look again,” Aldrin said.
• Chapter Four, paragraph 7 (file paragraph 112) — “Every survey party Brannoch ever sent saw that channel,” Aldrin said quietly. “Every one of them came back …
• Chapter Four, paragraph 9 (file paragraph 114) — “That wasn’t there before,” she said.
• Chapter Four, paragraph 10 (file paragraph 115) — Aldric didn’t answer.
• Chapter Four, paragraph 11 (file paragraph 116) — “Aldric. That cove wasn’t there last night.”
• Chapter Four, paragraph 12 (file paragraph 117) — “It’s where we grew up,” Aldrin said, behind her. “Our mother’s house. It washed into the sea forty …
• Chapter Four, paragraph 14 (file paragraph 119) — “Say that again,” she said.
• Chapter Four, paragraph 15 (file paragraph 120) — “It’s never there when I look alone.”
• Chapter Four, paragraph 16 (file paragraph 121) — She turned and looked at the coast. In the last gray light she saw the cottage and the …
• … 10 more location(s): see the appendix, finding F008.

F009 · Low · Likely error

Space before punctuation: 2 occurrence(s).

Reviewer: The Chapter Five ‘ink ,’ is a stray space. The Chapter Two hit is the ‘???’ placeholder already listed in F007.

• Chapter Two, paragraph 14 (file paragraph 56) — …“More than we have. The price was ??? last time I asked, which is the Guild…
• Chapter Five, paragraph 11 (file paragraph 159) — …they wanted it, and drew it, and the ink , as every sailor in this hall knows, has…

F010 · Low · Likely intentional

Adjacent repeated word: 1 occurrence(s).

Reviewer: ’that that’ is grammatical here. No action.

• Chapter Three, paragraph 22 (file paragraph 93) — …ad spent too long alone in a tower, and that that was all there was to it.…

F011 · Low · Likely error

Three-dot ellipsis where the rule is …: 4 occurrence(s).

• Chapter Two, paragraph 12 (file paragraph 54) — …w the shore as it is, not as you wish it… the old masters used to say the Mile wa…
• Chapter Two, paragraph 18 (file paragraph 60) — …. If anybody knows what it does at night…”…
• Chapter Two, paragraph 23 (file paragraph 65) — …f you can’t do it. If the Guild takes me…”…
• Chapter Two, paragraph 25 (file paragraph 67) — …“But if they do…”…

Findings requiring review

F014 · High · Likely error

Chapter Seven has 197 words against a median of 835. Its last paragraph does not end with closing punctuation.

Reviewer: Chapter Seven stops mid-sentence (‘she reached for the’). Text appears to be missing.

• Chapter Seven, paragraph 2 (file paragraph 169) — Brannoch closed his ledger, and Ysolde saw that his hands were shaking. Around them the hall had gone …

F012 · Medium · Likely error

‘Branoch’ (1×) is close to ‘Brannoch’ (10×).

Reviewer: ‘Branoch’ should be ‘Brannoch’.

• Chapter Three, paragraph 32 (file paragraph 103) — They slept that night on the floor of the lamp room, wrapped in Aldrin’s spare blankets, with the …

F013 · Medium · Likely error

‘Isolde’ (1×) is close to ‘Ysolde’ (19×).

Reviewer: ‘Isolde’ should be ‘Ysolde’.

• Chapter Five, paragraph 11 (file paragraph 159) — “There is no channel. There never was. Your surveyors saw it because they wanted it, and drew it, …

Content not examined

None found. The main text was examined in full.

Checks not performed

This audit is a mechanical examination with human review of its findings. It did not cover:

• Story continuity (timeline, weekdays and dates, physical descriptions, objects, who knows what)
• Scene-partner correctness and doubled story beats
• Spelling, grammar and punctuation beyond the stated formatting rules
• Style, pacing, structure, voice or market fit
• Fact-checking of real-world claims
• Print and ebook layout
• Plagiarism, AI-content detection or authorship

Rules applied

• Quote style: curly; dash style: em; ellipsis: character
• Repetition checks compare text after ignoring capitalization, quotation-mark style and spacing; the report says identical only when the text matches exactly, otherwise matching.
• Repetition thresholds: paragraphs of 12+ words, sentences of 15+ words
• Near-duplicate threshold: 55% phrase overlap on paragraphs of 20+ words
• Placeholder strings searched: TK, TODO, FIXME, XXX, [INSERT …], [TBD], ???, lorem ipsum, {{…}}, [NAME]
• Chapter numbers are read as digits, Roman numerals or English number words up to ninety-nine; headings in any other style are listed and excluded from the numbering check.
• Repetitions declared intentional by the author: 1

Chapter word counts

1. Prologue: 251
2. Chapter One: 1,013
3. Chapter Two: 876
4. Chapter Three: 1,217
5. Chapter Four: 835
6. Chapter Five: 487
7. Chapter Five: 595
8. Chapter Seven: 197
9. Epilogue: 202