The past couple of weeks, my group and I have been doing a lot to try and transcribe the memoir of Elizabeth Grundy. I am in a group of four and we each were assigned to 6 pages each. It was very challenging being able to read the tough cursive. Having to read it so many times, I realized how tough Elizabeth Grundy’s life was. She went through very much struggle and had to react in different circumstances. She also looked to God very much, asking for his help. Each group member was assigned a certain amount of pages of the memoir, so that aspect was individual, but we eventually needed to come together to create the timelines and when we started tagging everything. We had to discuss and decide which words were tagged to which specific thing. One debate we had was whether Jesus, Savior, and Christ were going to be marked as “Persname” or “Rolename”. This was important because people have different beliefs, and we all needed to agree on the tag. We decided on “Rolename” so then we had to make sure everyone tagged those. Another thing that we had trouble with was deciding what was considered “objects” and what we’re not. I originally did not know if every noun or thing was an object. We decided on only specific words being objects. It took a while to tag each emotion and to decide the words. Here is an example of the decision to tag God as roleName instead of persName. It was an important decision to choose this and it worked out well for our group.
In the reading “A Rationale of Digital Documentary Editions” by Elena Pierazzo, the author states how she believes that a transcription is a form of translation. Each transcription is translated differently so each author creates different transcriptions. There are many different features included in the process that help the transcription. The author chooses their specific interpretation and they chose what to represent each and it changes based on the author’s vision. There are purposes of editors, which are similar to what we do with tagging. We also edit by making sure the words match the same as the original document.
Here is an example of the different tags for each emotion. It took a lot to find each and to physically tag each word.
Caroline Walsh is a sophomore at Bucknell University and is from Needham, Massachusetts. She has two sisters, including an identical twin, who also attend Bucknell. Caroline is a member of the women’s lacrosse team on campus and enjoys hanging out with her friends.
1 reply on “Blog #4”
I think you did an excellent job explaining the process of tagging and making marks in your document. I agree with Pierazzo when she discusses that “transcription is a form of translation”. I believe that the way one transcribes a document is very unique and individual based on how one reads and interprets the document. I think it is cool how each transcription is so different because it helps other people have a broader understanding of the document. I also find it very interesting how your group decided to tag Jesus as a role name because my group decided to not tag it at all based on everyone’s different opinions. You did an excellent job and I enjoyed reading your blog post. 🙂