Introduction

Word count: 250–450 words

This is the first written element of an edition: the first content readers encounter.

The purpose of this introduction is to set the scene: to provide an initial description of the source as well as an overview your edition, highlighting its features and supplements. This is not a space for much detail about the source or our editorial work with it. Later sections will allow you to do that. Here, your job is to help readers understand that they are looking at a digital edition of a historical source and why that source is interesting.

The premium is on precise, no-nonsense prose.

At bottom, you should include:

How to Cite: Here, provide a citation using this model:

Lastname, Firstname, FirstName LastName, and FirstName, Lastname. “Title of Web Page.” Name of Website (if different from web page). Publication or Revision Date. URL.

Your teams have multiple authors. In scholarship, if authorship is equal across all team members, then the custom is to list by last name them in alphabetical order. If you wish to deviate from this order you can but that will communicate priority (i.e. that the one who goes first is the ‘lead author’, etc.).

If you choose and wish to do so, you may also include a Creative Commons license here. We’ll discuss those in class.

Here and throughout your edition, you should use footnotes in Chicago Notes and Bibliography style.¹ Please note that if sources are listed in your bibliography (and all your main ones should be), you may use a shortened form in these notes (e.g. Smith, Towards a Better Understanding, 5, with the full citation to Smith going in the bibliography).

The Source

This section provides the main presentation of your source, as you have prepared it for readers (i.e., a facsimile, transcription, video, audio clip, etc.). This section is where we satisfy the first of the ADE’s three criteria for an electronic edition by providing a rigorous, accurate presentation of historical material.

For the presentation of some sources, it may make sense to break up the presentation into multiple pages. For that, as needed, we can use a more book like template (binding multiple pages together) that I can provide. Nonetheless, this page should be the page from which all presentations of the source itself start.

This may also be a space where editorial annotations are provided, such as notes on provenance, archival location, transcription, and more. If possible, a link to the source’s permanent digital location should be included here as well as a citation for that location. This should be done in consultation with the instructors, editorial board, and peer reviewers.

Please note: some presentations may benefit from a multipage format (rather than one scrolling page, as here). I can make a multipage template available to you as needed.

About this Source

Word count: 1000 words (excluding footnotes)

This section contains a short biography or history of your source. This section helps readers understand the context in which the source was made, and the kinds of historical topics and questions it illuminates. It also helps to satisfy the second of the ADE’s “Minimum Standards for Electronic Editions,” explanatory annotation.

“About this Source” should answer questions like:

How, when, and where was this artifact created?
For what purpose? To what effect?
Who used it, when, where, why?
What sorts of histories and historical debates has it been used in? How might we use it in our explorations of the past today?

To answer these questions, you will be drawing on your collective research for the Research Assignment.

The target length of this section is about 1000 words, exclusive of notes. It should contain footnotes that substantiate and support your research into the artifact and its history. Here, as throughout, the focus should be on clean, clear prose.

About this Edition

This section should state the principles and choices that guided your editorial work. It helps satisfy the last of the ADE’s criteria, by explaining to readers just how you produced the copy of the source presented here.

This section should answer such questions as:

What original artifacts or copies of original artifacts were used in the making of your edition? 
Where may they be found today? What is their catalog or other identifying number (DOI, URL) there?
What procedures and technologies did you use in making your presentation of this artifact?
Why did you choose them? Are there any limitations of this method that readers should be aware of?
How did you produce transcriptions (if any)?
What kinds of alterations or emendations (if any) have you made? How are they noted?

There is no target word count for this section, as the emphasis here is on maximum precision and clarity. Be as brief and to the point as you can.

Supplements

Should you wish to include any supplemental materials–such as specific forms of source commentary or illustrations–they may be provided here. They are not required. If you do not have any supplements, please eliminate this field.

Bibliography

This section should provide a bibliography of all sources cited in your work as well as

Credits and Acknowledgments

Please thank your clients, as well as anyone else you would like to thank for their assistance in making this edition.

Optional: Author Biography

If you wish to include short bios of yourselves as authors, please put them here. This is optional.

About MinDoc 1.0

Please leave this credit (eliminating this italicized part)

This site was built using MinDoc 1.0, a prototype digital documentary edition template developed for classroom use by members of SourceLab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The original project team included Liza Senatrova, John Randolph, Caroline Kness, and Richard Young.

References