[Sca-cooks] Research help (was The Templars)

[Stefan li Rous]

  Joshua McCoy voiced an interest in researching the Knights Templars:
>  So with me not knowing what to really ask my
> self questions wise to help guide my own research leads me in to my
> question that have for all of you.  My question is, what question  
> do all of
> have that I can use to guide my self in the research on The Nights  
> Templar
> which will be used to wright my history book that will be published?

I think you've already gotten a number of useful comments from folks  
about researching this particular subject. I think you do need to  
approach research more generally and not specifically to write a  
particular book on something.  A book tends to be a small amount of  
the total knowledge someone has on a particular subject. By  
concentrating on getting info just to fill a book, you won't get the  
broad background you need to see how that subject fits in with the  
environment around it. Research a subject that interests you, for  
that reason alone. You may well find that some side subject that  
comes to you while searching the first, is really where your  
interests lie. If so, follow that.

Why start looking to write a book from the first? Why not start with  
an article or two first? Or a paper to be entered in a local Arts and  
Sciences competition?  I am not a professional editor. I'm an  
electronics engineer. However, I have edited a number of articles in  
the process of creating and managing the Florilegium. I won't  
guarantee that an article you write would be acceptable for the  
Florilegium, however if you are willing to write an article, and be  
willing to at least listen to my review and suggestions, I would be  
willing to work through multiple revisions with you. There are also  
writers groups that may be willing to work with you, although most of  
the ones I know of are oriented towards fictional works.

In the meantime, perhaps these files in the INFO-SOURCES section of  
the Florilegium might be useful for you to read:
Libry-Research-art (44K) 12/ 3/03    "Historical Research in the  
Modern Library"
                                        by Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/INFO-SOURCES/Libry-Research-art.html
Using-ILL-art      (8K) 11/09/03    "Interlibrary Loan" by Aelfwynn  
of Whitby
http://www.florilegium.org/files/INFO-SOURCES/Using-ILL-art.html

Stefan

And Joshua, your spelling seems to be better than in your first  
messages. It is something that you can work on and improve. Back in  
elementary or  middle school, I made only a 40 percentile grade in  
spelling on one of my achievement tests. You may note that my  
spelling is better than that now, although I do still make mistakes.  
However, now I am often the one correcting others spelling mistakes  
in messages and articles before they get into the Florilegium. Not  
always though, because of time constraints. :-(  But anyway, if you  
wish to, you too can overcome this problem.

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****