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Documenting Arts and Sciences Entries

By Master Crispin von Bern

One of the greatest hurdles many people face in preparing for an Arts & Sciences competition is documentation.  Here are some suggestions that may make the documentation process a little easier.

First, think of your documentation as the outline for a brief “class” presentation on your entry.  This outline should include:

• What is your entry?
• What inspired this entry?
• What era and region is it from?
• What purpose did it fulfill?
• What tools & techniques were used in period to create the original?
• If you did anything differently from the original, explain what you did and why you did it.  Cost, availability and skill level are all acceptable reasons for modification.
• Never apologize for any modifications that you needed to make.  Judges will assume that your entry is your best effort.
• If you cite a source in your text, quote it.  The judges will rarely have your source memorized and are unlikely to have it at hand to look up.
• If using anything but a primary source, cite your source and where they got their information.  Check their bibliography, footnotes and suggested reading.
• Cite your background sources in a concise bibliography.  A good collegiate dictionary will have examples of how to do this in the back.
• Never put anything in your documentation that you cannot fully support.
• Make sure all elements of your entry agree in regional and chronological style.
• If you did anything from scratch, brag about it!  Preparing raw materials, modifying or making tools is period.
• Kingdom of the Outlands Arts & Sciences Judging Criteria state, “Judges should assume an entry is constructed with modern materials and tools unless otherwise stated in the documentation.”**  So, if all you can include is a description of modern technique and practice, expect to get a low Authenticity score.
• Be as succinct as possible.  Judges have a limited amount of time, so your documentation should be thorough but to the point.

  **This was true when this article was originally written several years ago.

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