[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: transcribing handwritten materials




This brings me to my next question. How can I indicate clearly when
I'm guessing? I've seen some online transcriptions of manuscript
materials where the text was laced with editorial asides in red. But
these were mostly limited to [sic] after uncorrected misspellings. I
haven't seen any examples of how people indicate when they're
guessing about a word. Because we're also going to have scanned
images of the letters themselves, I suppose I could decide that users
can see for themselves if a particular word is hard to decipher. But
it just doesn't seem right not to point it out when there is some
reason to doubt the transcription.

Let me suggest Michael E. Stevens and Steven B. Burg, Editing
Historical Socuments: A Handbook of Practice (AltaMira Press, 1997),
published "in cooperation with" the Association for Documentary
Editing, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and for the
American Association for State and Local History.

Whatever conventions you use should be described in on your web
site/publication.  Depending on the user, particularly if the user is
the "general public" you may decide that it is appropriate to add
punctuation or correct "slips of the pen" but the reader should be
warned if s/he is being presented with anything less than a full
transcription.  Very few users are likely to read the original
document if a transcription is available, so  you owe it to the user
to alert him/her if the reading are doubtful.

Christopher Densmore, Curator
Friends Historical Library
Swarthmore College
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081-1399

E-Mail: cdensmo1@swarthmore.edu
Telephone: 610-328-8497
Fax: 610-690-5728
Web: www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
     In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                   *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
    http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>