ANST - Documentation - A View From the Outlands

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

This comment is from a citizen of the Outlands, who though she is not a Laurel has served as a judge.  Again, this is another of the out-of-kingdom viewpoints that I'm sharing with the Ansteorran list by way of comparison.  This posting came originally from the SCA Arts List.

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Subject: Re: Documentation - Where & How do I Begin?
Mon, 30 Nov 1998 13:05:08 EST
From: <Varju at aol.com>

In a message dated 11/29/1998 10:29:40 PM Mountain Standard Time,
PamellaVW at aol.com writes:

<< What do the judges expect?  What should be included in any documentation
 packet?  >>

The first time I set out to enter a competition I asked around to find out
form other people what they did and to find out from others what they looked
for.  What I learned is that documentation  should be short, around 2-3 pages.
In it you should describe what you made, how it was made and used in period
and any techniques or materials you used that were not period and why.  In the
last category, it is perfectly acceptable to state that period materials were
unavailable, or unaffordable.   There should also be a bibliography so
everyone knows where your information comes from. I personally use
parenthetical citations to indicate where each bit of information comes from,
but that is a personal choice.    Including pictures to illustrate why you
used a particular method is great, just note what is important about the
picture.

Having judged several times now I can say as a judge I *DO NOT* want long
documentation.  I've run into it several times, and the reasoning was that the
more information provided the better the documentation would be.  A nice,
clearly, written 2-3 page piece of documentation is perfect for me.  My other
pet peeve is from my grad student days but I've seen it crop up in
documentation too. . .using large words only makes you look more educated if
you use them correctly.

I hope this all helps. . .


Fekete Hollo Noemi Asszoncs
Windkeep, Outlands
Cheyenne, Wyoming
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::GUNNORA::

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