MarineLives Transcription & Editorial Policy: Draft Two
MarineLives Transcription & Editorial Policy: Draft Two
Editorial history
19/08/12: CSG, created page
Contents
Suggested links
Transcription & Editorial Policy
MarineLives Transcription & Editorial Policy: Draft One
MarineLives Transcription & Editorial Policy: Draft Three
Introduction to the High Court of Admiralty
Draft Two
Draft of MarineLives Editorial Method/Directions for Transcribers
Revised August 18, 2012
Charlene M. Eska
ceska@vt.edu
The aim of the transcribers is to create a semi-diplomatic edition of the HCA documents. As
such, transcribers will, for the most part, transcribe exactly what they see using the following
conventions.
Letter forms
Spelling is not standardized, so it is important to transcribe what you see and resist the urge
to ‘correct’ the spelling. Any letters that are written superscript should be lowered.
U/V, u,v Transcribe each of these letters as they appear in the documents. Do not make the
determination of whether the graph represents a vowel or a consonant.
i/j, I Transcribe each of these letters as they appear in the documents.
Y Although it looks like the letter ‘y’, it is really a form of þ ‘thorn’ and should be transcribed
as ‘th’. Common sense will tell you whether you are dealing with <y> or <þ>.
Punctuation
Punctuation is different from what we are used to. Transcribe the marks as you see them. The
only exception to this will be the dash used to fill the ends of lines; ignore these marks. Do not
try to impose modern punctuation conventions.
Transcribe any dots surrounding numerals
Preserve the page layout as much as possible when you transcribe, including the placement of
signatures and line breaks within paragraphs.
Follow the foliation of the original documents.
Capitalization
Do not capitalize letters that are not written in capitals. Transcribe what you see. An index will
be created with standardized forms of names, places, ships, etc., and all spelling variants will be
indexed accordingly.
Abbreviations
& The ampersand represents the word ‘and’. Transcribe it as ‘and’ without putting it in italics. If
it is part of a Latin phrase, transcribe it as ‘et’.
Some words are commonly abbreviated, e.g. ‘arle’ for ‘article’. Put supplied letters in italics. See
webpage for a list of commonly abbreviated words.
Contractions and Suspensions
XXX All letters supplied by the transcribers should be in italics. This will be the case wherever
contractions and suspensions are expanded.
Tildas represent single or double ‘m’ or ‘n’. Be mindful of the different ways of
representing ‘per’, ‘pro’, ‘par’, ‘pre’, etc. along with ‘-con’.
[XXX] Any letters supplied should be enclosed in square brackets. This is sometimes the case
when a letter has been omitted by mistake. Use sparingly.
{…} Letters lost due to staining, damage, etc. Give an indication, if possible, of how many
letters are lost and if any letter forms are even partially visible.
XXX Use the strikethrough function to indicate text deleted in the documents. Transcribe as
much as you can see.
˹ XXX ˺ Text written between the lines or in the margins. If written in the margins, indicate in a
footnote whether the text is marg. sup., marg. inf., marg. dext., or marg. sin.
Colin's comments on Draft Two
Accents (acuts, graves, breves)
Email to Charlene, 18/08/12: 17.59
"In the revised method, how are accents (acutes, graves, breves) handled. By the way did the accents alter the way a word was pronounced (as in nmodern French).
See "á" below:
"Ad 5:m arlum deponit That hee hath heard and beleeveth that the sd John
Day did when hee bought any Prize Ship or goods of the sayd Prize Office as
á broker for another person or transferred the same to another pson use to bring
such pson to the sayd Office to engage to the sayd Office for the paym:t for such
Prize Shipp & goods..." (HCA 13/76 f.51r image P1100019)
See also my other examples:
Sample One: acute accents, dots before and after numbers
Sample Two: inconsistent use of dots before and after numbers, breves, semi-colons (especially the two slopped lines over the two "c"'s in "accompt""
Email reply from Charlene, 18/08/12: 19.00
"It is still under the principal of ‘transcribe what you see’ in terms of marks above vowels. In terms of the marks above the ‘c’s, I think a note indicating that the scribe tends to indicate lower case ‘c’ by putting slopping lines above them should be sufficient. I’ve updated the editorial method accordingly."
See MarineLives Transcription & Editorial Policy: Draft Three
Email reply from Charlene, 18/08/12: 19.23
"No, the system is not consistent and it isn’t like French, although the pronunciation of vowels at this time was different than it is now due to the great English Vowel Shift."
