Not only is the underlying pattern derived from its individual documentary evidences, but the individual documentary evidences, in their turn, are interpreted on the basis of “what is known” about the underlying pattern. Each is used to elaborate the other.
‘ For example, in the case of Atkinson’s study of coroners, those deaths defined as suicide were seen as such by reference to an underlying pattern. This pattern is the coroner’s commonsense theory of suicide.
However, at the same time, those details defined as suicide were seen as evidence for the existence of the underlying pattern. In this way particular instances of the pattern and the pattern itself are mutually reinforcing and are used to elaborate each other.