Summary
When Professor Bennett and I met last week, we decided for this week’s work I would begin transcribing the last epistle of Reginald Scot’s The Discovery of Witches. In the novel there are four pistols and the last one was the only one that hadn’t been fully transcribed or encoded. To do this work I had my computer split screen so I could look at the photographs of the book and have a Google doc open at the same time to transcribe the work. Moving right along this did not take awfully long and therefore I had extra time to begin encoding the pages.
Since I had extra time, I started on encoding the pages. In doing this work it was helpful to have a Google doc page open of all the tags I would need. This made the work go by much faster. I managed to get three of the pages fully encoded. For the last hour and a half or so instead of continuing the encoding process I decided to review the already included pages to check for spelling and formatting errors. I got through several pages, but I still need to finish this work.
3/4 4:00pm-5:30pm (4 hrs)
6:00pm-7:30pm
8:00pm-9:00pm
3/5 8:50am-11:30am (6 hrs)
11:40am-1:20pm
6:20pm-7:00pm
7:30pm-8:30pm
Total: 10 hrs
Reflection
Over the course of my Digital Humanities Internship this semester I’ve been learning a lot. One of the key skills that I have been working on is notating. I recognize that I still need to improve in this aspect, but I think I have significantly improved. Notation is incredibly important in transcribing and encoding these documents not only for myself but others who may continue to work on this project or use this project as reference material. One place I have included notes in is on Oxygen in the Discovery of Witchcraft Encoded document. These notes have included documenting each individual page that I or another student has encoded. While each document details who has done work on the project it’s best to notate what pages they have done. I have also included notes of questions for myself to ask my professor, visual distinction aids, and who names could be referring to. This internship blog has also helped me keep track of what I have done each week so I can recognize what I am doing and learning.
Another key skill this internship has helped me improve is setting up a system for myself to do better work. Sometimes when work is presented the work is just done. However, it is important to take time and think about how the work can be best done to optimize your time. During the process of encoding these pages I worked on finding the best way for me to work. Having a split screen and multiple tabs open allows me to compare for example the transcribed text and the original. Another tool I have used it is creating a Google doc of all the tags I will need to use so I do not have to rewrite the tags but can just copy, paste and then edit as need be.