Letter from Norman Victor Powe to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald

Transcribe the text as it is written

Spelling mistakes and strange punctuation and also uncomfortable comments of their times should remain true to the original document to enable historical accuracy and to keep the original style, expression and personality.

Abbreviations

Transcribe abbreviations as they have been written, don’t expand them.

Line breaks

Retain line breaks as they appear unless a word has broken over two lines or two pages. Transcribe the word as a whole word on one line.

Non-English language text

Transcribe exactly as it appears if you can. Don’t translate any of the non-English language text. Use the correct language characters [ie. é ä ] by using the editing options provided.

Unreadable text

If you are having trouble reading any text, add double square brackets with a question mark or guessed text [[?]] enclosing the whole word or sentence ie. [[regum?]] or [[haut flm pcoline?]].

Marginalia

Transcribe text written on the margins of the page within [* *] enclosing the text. ie. [*the cat in the hat*].

Do not correct grammar

Do not make grammar correction if it is not in the original document. For example, don’t insert commas.

Order of transcription

Transcribe text in the order it appears on the page. If there is are more than one page in the document, transcribe all pages in the order they appear.

Blank pages

Keep transcribing the next page if you encounter a blank page.

Distressing content

Read our help and support page to receive guidance and support on transcribing distressing content..

For more information about transcription rules and conventions, please refer to our user guide.