Documentation is a huge topic in the SCA because it is a very important part of every research project. You must give credit when you use other people’s material, and you must provide references so others can find and use that information as well. Research is meant to be shared, to inform, to teach, and to inspire others to do more research. It is impossible to continue this cycle of learning if clear documentation is lacking. Overall the goal of documentation is to standardize the information and make it as readable as possible. Items such as book or article title, author, publisher, page number, date, etc. are included in your works cited list so that the reader can locate the information easily. In-text citations (source information in parentheses in the body of your text) or footnotes (a numbered list of references at the bottom of each page) are also needed to document all of your researched information. You need to give others credit for the information they have supplied including things like:- Direct quotations
- Photos and drawings
- Documentable facts including events, names, places, dates, etc.
- Any references to or usage of information from your sources that is not general knowledge about the subject including any paraphrasing or summaries of that information
Documentation is very important, but it does not need to be difficult. Currently in the Midrealm, where I live, any style of documentation is acceptable as long as you are consistent. I would assume most other kingdoms are similar, but you should check with your local MoAS to be sure.If you are familiar with a particular format and it will work with your sources, then use that. If you are not familiar with a particular style, you have a lot of options. some of the most common are APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association) and Chicago/Turbian style. “Turbian” comes from Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. It is not a separate style from Chicago, but while the Chicago Manual of Style is mainly aimed at publishers, Turbian presents Chicago guidelines in a way that prioritizes student needs.- The MLA style relies on in-text citations and, because it is most often used when working with written sources and quotations, it emphasizes the authors name and page numbers.
- The the APA style is typically used in the social and behavioral sciences and while it also uses in-text citations and author names, it lists the year of publication rather than the a specific page in the source.
- The Chicago/Turbian style is used in many academic fields and is the most flexible of the three forms, although it can be a bit more complicated to learn. While MLA and APA rely almost entirely on in-text citations, Chicago/Turbian gives options for footnotes as well. This style can also be a bit more helpful than the others when citing artifacts, manuscripts, and other things from museum collections.
Personally I would recommend starting with Chicago/Turbian as it is the most likely of the the three to be able to meet all of your needs as an historical researcher.Once you have decided on a style, you may need some help getting started. There are many people who can help you. Most college students or recent graduates will have likely used these methods in college research papers. You can also get help from others who have successfully documented their own A&S projects as well as A&S judges, especially those who judge the research papers. There are also people in the SCA who are historians, archeologists, librarians, research assistants, etc. with a great deal experience in documentation. Your local MoAS should be able to point you to people who can help. There is also a great deal of help online. Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) is the best source of information you will find on this topic. On their website you can find out not only how to site any source in any style, but you can also get tips on how best compose research papers, business letters and resumes.While the OWL website will give you all the information you need to manually cite all of your sources, there are also automated ways that can save you time. There are citation widgets online that will format your information on demand, but a better choice is a citation manager. These are apps into which you enter all of the information for all of your resources (sometimes the entry is even automated with the use of ISBN numbers or book store websites) and then you choose which sources and which style and the app will print out a perfectly formatted list for you. The most popular free citation manager is called Zotero and is available for all platforms including a web based version. Zotero also makes it easy to create a list of shared resources with a group of friends or other people studying similar topics. The best thing about using a citation manager is that you only have to enter source information once, even if you are using some of the same sources for different projects. It also can be a helpful way to keep track of your ever growing collection of books and other resources .