About documentation

This article deals practical hints to make a good documentation for persons planning to attend Art & Science Competitions in the Kingdom of Drachenwald. My article does not presentate any official Drachenwald statement, it tells about my feelings when writing them. Winning big competitions I here dear to give hints to others.

What is a documentation?

A documentation is a detailed description from the making of your product. With your documentation you will justify your conclusions doing your product detail by detail on line to the authentisity/mundania.( Always remember this line) It can be short, just minimum of sentences under each other with - mark , or it can be a long, vocablularily rich product. What is most important in it is that it has a clear and well thought content. With your documentation you are telling to the reader, how many sided and large your knowledge within this matter is and that you know very well what you are doing.

Why to documentate?

A documentation is either written or vocabular bulletin, which is presented as a joint in Drachenwald A&s competitions. A documentation is good to present with A&S exhibition works, too, as the same way like the exhibitions in museums nowadays have attached imformation for those visitors who want to know more. Always when you make your product, not only for to win a competition, you make your work also for to show others your fiekld of knowing and before all to get feedback and to learn more. With your work you will representate not only yourself, but your barony, shire and village. It is always positive, if your work will awake discussion. If you cannot attend the competition event, there is always people that can take your work with them, and you will get feedback in return: new bookhints, other way to look things etc…

Without a documentation the judges or others has it impossible to find out, how much and many-sided is your knowledge about the subject you are dealing with. Is it only coinfindence that you chose the most authentic way, tool or just the most authentic stiches?

Drachenwald and documentation

In the official competions in Drachenwald the documemntation has a big part. From the competition form, which everyone entering fills before the competition, (Kingdom of Drachenwald Arts & Sciences Competition Entry Form), you can find out, that from a documentations you can have as many points as from the quality of the work. The form you can print for you from: http://www.drachenwald.sca.org/files/a&s/criteria/. In it the following parts are noticed: documentation (max. 30 p), authenticity (max. 20 p), difficulty (max. 10 p), quality (max. 30 p), and estheticity (max. 10p).

Fom the same address you can find the judging criteria for different parts in arts and sciences: clothes, drinks etc. If you are interested, go and read them before you start making your product.

From the same address you can find a minimum documentation form, which is one qurter of A4-size. There for the name of your work are asked, your mundane and sca-name, contry and time period where yor product is located, what is typical for the period your the style of that period and the sources you used. Each a sentence or two everything to the size of A4! Does not sound difficult, doesn't it? I think that if you present everything this shortly it is difficult to get the judges convinced from your knowledge, and if you have time, it would be wiser to consentrate into making of the documentation.

How to write a documentation

Take time as long as a week amount in workdays. I suppose that you have been reading your sources first time already when you made your product. If your work is going into Drachenwald into a competition, and you are not writinmg in English, take some time for translating (or get somebody native to check your grammar, if you are writing in English despite). You can find volunteers for that by asking. Bad grammar should not influence to your placing, but in practice it will damage your message to get through, so the grammar is better to be in order in the competition. A good grammar makes the reader think, that you are as exact in everything you do.

I think that a good documentation has four parts: the text, footnotes, pictures and bibliography. In separate for the reason, that sometimes in the competitions have limited amount of text pages (often in Drachenwald 10 pages without pictures and bibliography), and if your text is to be long, the pictures are better to be added after the text part. If your product is a complicated or consists of many parts, 10 pages will fill suprisingly fast

I think that a perfect documentation has the following chapters or headings mostly in this order:

1. presentation
2. why I chose to make this product , that is, my goal when starting
3. introduction of the most used bibliography
4. presentation of materials and compare to authentic ones
5. presentation of the tools and methods used in making the product and compare (maybe some from the history of the method, if rare)
6. making the product in detail
7. big problems and how they were solved
8. critics self-given
9. the end words or reaching my goal (or how I did it now.if…)

In the first day write the documentation. Empty your brains and use overall the order in the previous chapter. Do not stop writing when your make a writing error, do not run to check for a pagenumber or book name for your footnotes, leave their space empty or write what you remember. Write down what you want to say in the order threy jump into your mind, you can always move them into their place in the text later (if you use computer). When you have a brake, check that you have stayed in the (main) subject. Many times during the first day remind the sentence learned in the beginning of this article: With your documentation you will convince….. When you have written the text through once, come back to it only in the very next day. Have a free evening; read a novel, go to movies, sleep well overnight.

In the next day print your text. Read it carefully. Take a red color pen. Fix your grammar and writing errors. Chance the places of your sentences and chapters so, that the things you want to say belong to the right chapter under a right header and the chapters mainly in upstaying order ( presentation, goals, etc.) That way your text will make a clear sense. Add the facts that you forgot last day and fill the chapters into logical ones or write the missing chapters. Print again and start to work with your footnotes. Check through book by book that your footnotes are correct and add the pagenumbers (or if you prefer, leave them out from all of them. If you decide to add the pagenumbers, then add them into all of the notes). Sleep overnight and continue in the very next day.

Print and read your text through and… guess or not, there is still something to fix. Change words somewhere where you can find a word that clears your message better. Think, have you explained things enough. Add details you have forgotten. Delete the filling words that don't mean anything. Change the order of sentences and chapters, if needed. Check that you are not using too difficult words. You may add the professional vocabulary into appedix or into a footnote if you prefer. Add the pagenumbers. Check, that you have enough headers and every new thing you say belongs to an own chapter. No chapter may be too long: break them if needed. When the story if easily readable and fine , have a break, sleep overnight. In the following day….. I think you already guess. Once again.

Act so as long as is needed. It is important, that in the evenings you think about something else, otherwise you will become blind into your own text, and that is very dangerous.

More about sentences, footnotes and chapters

Use as short and clear sentences as possible. Start your chapter with an argument and continue to explain it in the following sentences. Remember the footnotes. You may of course try yor argument upside down (in the other hand….) Into the end of the chapter, especially if your sentences are very long ones, you can add a short summary of your arguments. Remember always that when reading fast the first and the last sencence in the chapter are those which the reader will remember best. The information in those sentences has to be the most important ones in the chapter. All claims have to be justifyed. All chosen tools and techniques have to be justifyed. All chosen fabrics has to be justifyed. All information not your own has to be shown with a footnote. A footnote is an information of whos and what book, netpage, unprinted text or discussion the information is taken. Add the footnote into the end of yor sentence into ()before the point, down in the same page or in the end of the text. Critics is allowed. It is god if you are able to critizice your own work (when I write my documentations, I add a whole chapter for it in the endpart of my text).

You may critizice the sources you have used, if you want to. I think that is best to do in starpart of your documentation in the same chapter, where you are introducing them. That makes the reader feel that you are a human reserved with good brains, who does not believe everything that is claimed. The quality of your sources is important, always remenber that both good and not good books exist, so make sure that you mainly use the good ones.

If you make your product fex. from polyester while the original, according to your source, has been silk, you must give a reason for it. The fact that you cannot afford silk is totally acceptable. The points will go down, if you don’t give any reason. If you use your friends idea or opinion, it is correct to honor him/her.

Write so - not so

It is good to give an expert imfluece - do not put yourself down for any reason, not even in cause to give your text a modest note, that kind of try the busy judges are likely to misunderstand. It is very important, that you understand this. Here are a few examples from my own documentations:
Not this way: I dyed the mitten with madder as told, but ,oho, it became green instead of red like it should. This way: I dyed the mitten with madder, but due to iron pot reactions it became green, though with madder red are dyed.

Not this way: I could not tie the loomstarts tight enough and therefore the hollow selvadge became unstabile. This way: I noticed, that the loomstarts when making hollow selvadges must be tied unnormally tight, much tighter that the other loomstart, but still the weaving was difficult and the result was not stabile.

Outfit

A good outfit is very important. Choose a very clear font and (here calligraphy is not a good option) and big letters. The judges may be busy and they do not want to put time into guessing words. Make an own album for your documentation or put then into binder, so that the parts of your documentatio does not separate in the middle of the journey.

Choose the background for your pictures, where you glu your pictures. I recommend that very expensive sprayglue, when you use it, you can chance the places of your pictures in the middle of your process, which does not dirt and most of all, it does not make the paper shrinky. Remember to put the pagenumbers, too. Make a list from the pictures, too(though you have noted then in the text) and remember to add there the imformation, where the pictures are copied from.

If you add material samples of other three-dimensional examples about your working methods, attach them carafully. They have to stay for a long time in the hands of many curious people.

In the last put your bibliogrsaphy into an empty page. Be careful and check, that every note that is in your text, is added in the bibliography. If you have plenty, header sepaterely printed books, unprinted texts, netpages, emails and phonecalls.

Into here into the last page copy the names of your sources very carefully, so that somebody interested about your subject may find into your well of information. Take especially care that all articles used are mentioned with the booknames they are in..

Have a good documentation,
Tófa