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Re: Transcription protocols



There are many ways to indicate where a transcriber is uncertain or text is
missing.  When transcribing 318 letters for the American Memory Website two
years ago, we used square brackets and question marks as in the following
examples:

        be[cau]se    =  you are sure of the word, especially the first two
and last two letters, but a blot makes the middle of the word completely
illegible.

        [because]    = you are pretty sure of the word but are indicating a
potential problem with interpretation.

        [because?]   = you are somewhat sure but have reservations, or are
guessing from context.

        [illegible text]    = you can't make anything out because of spilled
ink, light pencil, bad writing, tear stains, or whatever.

        [missing text]    = you can't make anything out because parts of the
text are missing.

I hope this is useful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karen F. Koka

Curator of Manuscripts
Nebraska State Historical Society
P.O. Box 82554
Lincoln, NE   68501-2554

E-mail:   lanshs02@nebraskahistory.org
Phone:  402-471-6396

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