ANST - Diarmaid on Documentation

[Dory Grace]

>Marc/Diarmaid wrote:
>
>Now, it
>is true that SOME people in the SCA *are* too stupid to stand the rigors of
>academic evaluation, but I believe they are very, VERY few in number, and
>there are SOME "experts" in the SCA who actually know more than the
academics,
>and may in fact BE the "Expert in the field".

As unpopular as it might be with some folk, I think this is a reasonable
and logical deduction.

>Ok, so what this means is that some people may see documentation as being
>a pointless bit of work, since they feel that their material really doesn't 
>matter as much as, say, a paper published in an academic journal.   But is 
>this true?  I don't think so.

I don't believe people realize how applicable some of our research can be
to some of our everday lives. Anyone in college will, somewhere along the
way, find places where their research work will be of value to them. As an
undergraduate I earned a a full 3 semester credits doing an independent
study course by researching and writing a paper called "Societal Influences
on Script Development from Fall of the Roman Empire to the Rennaisance." If
you're in college, you're almost guaranteed to be presented with an
opportunity to write a research paper. Whether your SCA interest will
provide a relavent subject for a paper or not, just having practiced those
research skills will put you way ahead when an assignment gets handed down.

So how about those folk not in college? Research skills can be applied to
finding a good buy on a home or car, finding a good school for your
children, deciding on which insurance to buy, how to do home repairs, etc,
etc, etc. Many, many of the skills we pick up and/or practice in the SCA
can be transferred directly to our everyday lives.

>It seems to me that the only way to overcome the belief that the SCA can't
>do academic level things, is to look at those standards, say "ok, that's
>not brain surgery, I can do that", and do it.  Eventually, the Academics
>who sneer at the SCA will lose the targets they've got to aim at.  But we
>can only be treated with as much respect as we treat out own work.

Excellent perspective. And the last line particularly rings right and true
in more ways than one.

>This does leave the whole question of those people who don't want to mess 
>with that "much work" since to them the SCA is only a game, and they don't
>care about accuracy and such.  I'm not sure what to suggest there.

They can certainly enter their work in competitions if they feel so
inclined, but with the understanding they won't get points for what they
didn't do. Otherwise, they can wear/make gifts of/use their work and they
can display to their hearts' content. 

Aquilanne


Dory Grace***The Inkwell
Austin, TX

"No matter where you go, there you are."
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