Style Guide
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Establish paragraph breaks at all
obvious change of topics - force a break at all opportunities to avoid
paragraphs that exceed normal writing.
Quite often subjects will talk at great length
in what appears to be a single sentence - but if you listen carefully,
this will be filled with
transitions. Take these as opportunities to create a paragraph break. Paragraphs
should be no longer than approximately 2 minutes of speaking time (for
both readability as well as technical needs to keep corresponding movie
files short.
Example
...the village was mostly Jewish, but
after we moved to Hamburg we lived in an area that was
filled with people from
all walks
of life because they came from..
Becomes this -
...the village was mostly Jewish.
After we moved to Hamburg we lived
in an area that was filled with people from all walks of life because they
came from...
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Surround with parentheses (.....) all questionable names
and unintelligible terms, unknown spelling, or anything that needs double-checking
or follow-up later. Parentheses will ALL be either eliminated or corrected
later. This may include material to be asked of the subject at a later
date, such as names.
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Surround with parentheses (.....) any notes that will
eventually get eliminated - such as "(I'm not sure if this segment
is in the correct order.)"
-
Eliminate parentheses as they are fixed/clarified.
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Don't include action notes, such as "long pause," "takes a drink," "sobs
lightly." Often oral history transcripts include
this, however, since we are attaching the actual audio/video
segments, this is unnecessary. The EXCEPTION is where the speaker uses a non-verbal cue that the reader would not be able to distinguish such as: [gestures "yes"] [gestures "no"] — enclose such comments in brackets [ ] and not in parentheses ( ).
-
Eliminate all irrelevant utterances
("um," "uh," "er," "hmm," etc.)
when they are spoken as verbalized pauses in thought.
This usually includes words like "and," "so,""but,"
"well," and others, depending on the person's speech
patterns. Speakers often
insert these words during change
of topic. This often is a prompt to begin a new
paragraph.
Example
...living in the apartment was very difficult
for me especially through my eyes, and, and, um, ah, after
that time we were forced to move to another town...
Becomes this -
...living in the apartment with was very difficult
for me especially, through my eyes.
After that time we were forced to move
to another town...
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Italicize obvious non-English words (eg. "Shabbat"). These will often also be put in parentheses (....) if you do not know the correct
spelling.
-
Capitalize formal names and locations - do not italicize.
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Spell out all numbers below 100
except dates and formal names.
Example
"eleven years old," "fifteen
years ago," "about 200 other
people," "1946," "September 1, 1939," "3rd Infantry
Division," "ninety-eight
died," but "102 survived."
-
Use an EM dash "—" (Shift-Option-dash) to separate what might normally be labeled with parentheses. Speakers
often stop mid-sentence to fill in details that occur to them as they
speak.
Example
"And
I still remember that various objects - torah scrolls,
prayer books, prayer shawls and so on - were taken
out of the synagogue
and in a muddy field just right near
the synagogue the vandals set fire to them.
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Slang words common in vocal speech should be
corrected so long as the corrections do not change the meaning or flow
of the spoken
words.
- Avoid correcting what would normally be considered improper written grammar
if this is part of their normal speech. The style of this site is to rely
on the accuracy of the spoken words available via the movies. When grammar
is changed significantly, this begins to alter the match between written
and spoken language. That said, please correct simple word
tense or verb agreements that only alters the form of words.
- Often a speaker will stop and correct an immediate thought, making the
original phrase meaningless. Go ahead and DELETE these short phrases prior
to the correction. You are not changing their speech, you are simply eliminating
a few words that they in essence strike from their speech.
- Keep all punctuation within parentheses.
Please report additional suggested style points as you work with the transcript.
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