This tutorial is meant to familiarize you with a suggested procedure for using the Power Structures system in order to aid in your investigation. There is some basic terminology used in the tutorial in reference to aspects of the system which are necessary in understanding the procedure. Citation: This is a reference to some piece of published information. The classification of the citation is left up to the judgement of the user community. Any source of information can be incorporated, from news paper articles, to blogs, to photographs and videos. Element: This is the individual piece of data entered into the system in the form of people, places, things, events, and groups. This term is applied both to the data itself as well as its visual representation in maps. Relationship: This is the connection between two elements of any type based on a citation. They are meant to be as low-level and simplistic as possible, following a similar format to the SVOO (subject-verb-object-object) natural language model.

1) Subject Matter The first place to begin is a subject matter. A subject is necessary in order to focus your investigation, and this will most likely come naturally. Refine your initial subject to a single element which will allow for easier searching on which you can build simple relationships to other elements. 2) Collecting Sources Once you have begun a search for information related to your subject matter, you can begin to keep track of sources you deem to be of interest in the form of citations. Citations in the system are set up to allow for as diverse a range of source types as possible. Simply add as much information as is available about the source itself. Often following MLA or Chicago Manual of Style guides are a good way to know what data is valuable from that medium. 3) Adding Elements As you are going through your search results and deliniating good sources from bad ones, you will be discovering information in the form of elements and relationships. Elements are the nodes in what will eventually become your network map, or 'narrative structure'. Elements can be added in the process of developing a map, or in a bulk entry before establishing any relationships in the system. This is purely a stylistic choice in how you pursue your investigation. 4) Connecting Elements During the same process as above, you're finding simple relationships between elements. These can be as simple as "member of", "sibling to", "employed by", etc. Each of these simple relationships will come from at least one source you have already designated as a citation, and will be based on two elements you have already added to the system. In this manner each simple connection will have a reference. 5) Constructing a Map Once elements have been added and relationships have been established, you can start mapping them visually. Start by dragging one element on to the stage, which will give you the first node in what will eventually become a network of elements. By moving your cursor over this element, you'll be presented with a menu, where you can access the element's info, remove it from the canvas, or expand upon it based on relationships. These relationships are presented initially as the other elements they connect with. By moving the cursor over those elements in the list, the relationship will appear next to it. Dragging the text of the relationship onto the canvas will add that element as a node, and connect the two with a line.