SC - I need a name...

[Alderton, Philippa]

Please help me to read this mailing list. I'm finding it to be increasingly
difficult.

Because I wince every time I see the word "redaction." Surely there must be
other people on this list who know what it means, but I have yet to see it
used here as an English word.

"Redaction" can mean several things in English: 

- - A collection of writings from various sources, especially a collection
that is re-organized, edited, or annotated.

- - A revised version of a written work that brings it into conformity with
some standardized format.

- - Any edited form of a written work. Not a new work that is only partly
based upon the content of its predecessor, but a revised version of the
original - especially one in which the revisions change mostly the form
rather than the substance.

- - A draft in which some ideas are first formulated in specific words.

In period cookery, a good example of a redaction is _Curye_on_Inglysche_ by
Hieatt and Butler.

An *interpretation*, *reconstruction*, or *adaptation* of a period recipe is
not a redaction. Unfortunately, some SCA person misused the word that way a
long time ago, since which time it seems that most other SCA cooks have
adopted the supposed SCA standard instead of trying to write or speak in
English. Maybe that's all right if we only communicate with insiders who
know our language. But if we ever try to communicate with real scholars, we
might come across as a lot of confused ignoramuses.

The most unfortunate thing about our misuse of the word "redaction" is that
it is (due to its inaccuracy) a broad and vague term, so that it tends to
blur the distinction between a reconstruction and an adaptation.

Could we please try to use the right words for what we're talking about,
such as "interpretation," "reconstruction," and "adaptation," rather than
settle for an old Scadianism that is no more correct than "eric" or
"feastocrat?"

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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