John Muir Transcription Project Style Guide and Steps

Illegible words: use empty brackets [    ]. If you are not sure of the word, use brackets around your guess. Use question marks only when Muir does. [tip: use the letters that you have and put them in a search on the internet and see what results you get.] 

Crossed out words: If the word(s) are legible add them in brackets without the line through them. The correct order of the words is not necessary.

Abbreviations: put exactly what Muir has written. You may add what you think the word is an abbreviation for in brackets.  "Mtns. [Mountains]."

Sketches or drawings: transcribe any captions. If there are no captions, *briefly* describe sketch. "[sketch: lake with trees]." 

Do not include Muir's original line breaks. You may include paragraph and page breaks if you choose, but it is not necessary. 

Transcribe one page at a time.  Transcribing an entire journal at once might be rather tedious and others may be transcribing the same journal. 

1)   VISIT THE JOHN MUIR JOURNALS WEBSITE

2)   Select one of Muir's online journals/notebooks and click on it.
 
3)   Determine if a page has already been transcribed:
    
      a) Select a journal/notebook "image" from the navigation at the bottom of the page.

      b) The transcription will appear below the image if it has been transcribed.
    
      c) If ithere is no "Transcription," go ahead and get started.
 
4)   Transcribe the page that you have into an email or document
 
5)   Send your page transcription along with the journal title and image number(s)
      to mwurtz@pacific.edu.

5)    We will notify you about style and formatting if necessary and inform you if other citizen transcribers are working on that journal. 

6)   Your transcription may be edited if necessary.

7)   Let us know if you do NOT want your name listed as one of our citizen curators.