Create Your Own Guide
Choosing an Issue
The guides on Fairmind.org use Fairmind Format to represent polarizing issues fairly, accurately, and concisely. Those guides tackle the most divisive and consequential issues of our time, but Fairmind Format can be used for much else, public or private. For example:
- A strategic decision in a business (Should we green-light this new initiative?)
- A policy question in local government (Should we allow high-density development in this neighborhood?)
- A debated scientific topic (Did a meteor strike cause the extinction of the dinosaurs?)
- A contested historical judgment (Was the use of atomic bombs in World War II justified?)
A simple rule: If an issue divides opinion and requires careful analysis of facts, values, and trade-offs, it’s a good candidate for Fairmind Format. Although values are often moral, sometimes they are about how to judge uncertain facts or conflicting theories, such as in scientific disputes.
What about political candidates? A person running for political office represents a complex bundle of issue positions, which are subject to change, along with other factors such as character and personal history. This is beyond the scope of Fairmind Format for a single guide.
Getting Started
To create your own guide, you can use Fairmind Format with tools you already have: We provide templates for Google Docs and for Microsoft Word (both desktop and online).
When you copy or download the files mentioned below, they are private to you unless you later choose to share them. We at Fairmind have no access to the documents.
Google Docs
- Click this link for the document.
- If you are not already logged in to your Google account, you will be prompted to do so.
- You will be asked “Would you like to make a copy of Fairmind Format Template?”
- The template will be copied and opened as a document you own and can edit. It is stored in your Google Drive.
Microsoft Word Desktop
If you have Microsoft Word installed on your computer and want to edit the file locally:
- Click this link for the template.
- `fairmind-format-template.dotx` will download to your computer.
- Open the file. When you do, an unsaved copy will automatically be created. You can edit, save, and manage it like any other Word file.
Microsoft Word Online
If you have a Microsoft account, including OneDrive, and prefer to use the online version of Word:
- Click this link for the document.
- `fairmind-format-template.docx` will download to your computer.
- Upload the file to your OneDrive. You can then open and edit it online.
Publishing on Fairmind.org
Fairmind Format is designed to be broadly useful: Most people will create guides for their own purposes and audiences, not for Fairmind.org.
The guides on Fairmind.org serve a specific purpose: They tackle the most divisive and consequential issues of our time, with strict standards of review for accuracy and fairness. If you are up for that and have an issue in mind, contact us before you start. Or, if you’d like to help with a guide that’s already in process, let us know.