Many older drafts, such as those in publications like Marguerite Davison’s Handweaver’s Pattern Book and Handweaver’s Source Book, are written for counterbalance looms with sinking sheds. Drafts in newer books, like Anne Dixon’s Handweaver’s Pattern Directory or Carol Strickler’s A Weaver’s Book of 8 Shaft Patterns are usually written for looms with rising sheds. Newer drafts from other sources are probably written for rising sheds (unless they’re reproducing olde timey drafts that were written for sinking sheds) but there’s no hard and fast rule. A draft for more than four shafts is almost certainly (but still not 100% guaranteed to be) written for rising sheds.
There are a few clues to go by, at least. If your draft has Xs in the tie-up, it’s probably written for a sinking shed loom. If it has Os instead, it’s probably written for a rising shed loom:
If there are numbers in the tie-up, it’s probably for a rising shed loom (again, no guarantee). If it has filled in squares, it’s hard to say: drafts with filled in squares in the tie-up are usually for rising shed but that doesn’t necessarily apply since people are often copying old drafts into new software.
Most modern Proper Books™ written by publishers with tech editors will tell you somewhere (probably near the front) whether the tie-ups therein are written for rising or sinking shed. That’s not the case for websites, blog posts, patterns produced by individuals, drafts doodled by a guildmate on the back of a napkin