[ANSTHRLD] Summarizing Documentation

[Ronald Blackman]

This is from the December 2008 LoAR and is aimed mainly at external
submission heralds,  but is good information to help with the Kingdom
commentary process.

 

Eirik Halfdanarson

 

On Summarizing Documentation

A perennial problem that afflicts many LoIs is improper summarization of the
supporting evidence for name submissions. The Administrative Handbook, in
section V.B.2.d says that

A summary of all supporting evidence provided for the submission must be
included on the letter of intent. Such evidence includes documentation,
permissions to conflict, proofs for entitlement, statements of support for
transferred items, and evidence for support in the case of branch
submissions.

It is the documentation which is most often either not summarized or
summarized improperly. To help submissions heralds who are having difficulty
adequately summarizing the documentation, here is a checklist that can be
followed to ensure that the documentation is adequately summarized. For each
different source being cited, the following information should be provided:

*	Author's name.
*	Book/article title.
*	Header name or page number (or both); if you give only the page
number of a source that has multiple editions, you must also include the
edition.
*	If the source is a webpage, give the full URL (beginning with
http://). Before finalizing the LoI it's a good idea to check that all of
the URLs are still current.
*	A brief quote or comment indicating what the source says about the
name element.
*	If the source is in a language other than English, a translation or
summary of the information.

Some books are cited so frequently by members of the College of Arms that
shorthand labels for these references have been developed. These references
are listed in Appendix H of the Administrative Handbook, and if you use one
of these labels, it is not required that you also list the author and title.
In all other cases, it is a professional courtesy to the authors to include
their names when citing their sources.