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The Documentation Discussion
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:45:34 -0600
What a wealth of information and insight about documentation, note-taking, interviewing, and the creation of bibliographies has poured forth within the CCBC-Net community during the past few days! It's good to hear from Susan Campbell Bartoletti from whom I've learned much about types of bibliographies. It seems that the extent of documentation important for one book isn't necessarily going to the be same for the next one, or the next, either. Take a look at Susan's "Black Potatoes,"
"In Coal Country," and "Kids on Strike" to see how she handles different types of source material in her works of creative nonfiction.
My initial question about documentation is directly related to an author's writing choices, more than to the choices made in creating source information. When an author writes that the subject "thought" or "felt," it seems to me that documentation of one kind or another is called for. When an author writes "probably thought" or "might have felt," I'm satisfied not to have documentation. Jean Fritz mastered that balancing act in most of her later biographies.
Is documentation incorporated into the back-matter of books of information in order to satisfy adult requirements, rather than the curiosity of young readers? Sometimes, and as someone has said, an error in one book can lead to the careless repetition of the same error in subsequent books and articles. As unlikely as it is for 4th graders to care about sources and bibliographies, some mature middle school readers and readers older than that do want to find out more. And sometimes, a well written and carefully documented book such as "Black Potatoes" will interest a curious adult reader who might be more likely to notice and even follow-up on back-matter information.
We've all learned so much about documentation during the past several weeks. Thanks to all the writers, editors, reviewers and readers who've shared their thoughts and practices with everyone. Now let's talk about the other NBA nominated books Megan listed in her message earlier today.
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 03 Jan 2003 02:45:34 PM CST
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 14:45:34 -0600
What a wealth of information and insight about documentation, note-taking, interviewing, and the creation of bibliographies has poured forth within the CCBC-Net community during the past few days! It's good to hear from Susan Campbell Bartoletti from whom I've learned much about types of bibliographies. It seems that the extent of documentation important for one book isn't necessarily going to the be same for the next one, or the next, either. Take a look at Susan's "Black Potatoes,"
"In Coal Country," and "Kids on Strike" to see how she handles different types of source material in her works of creative nonfiction.
My initial question about documentation is directly related to an author's writing choices, more than to the choices made in creating source information. When an author writes that the subject "thought" or "felt," it seems to me that documentation of one kind or another is called for. When an author writes "probably thought" or "might have felt," I'm satisfied not to have documentation. Jean Fritz mastered that balancing act in most of her later biographies.
Is documentation incorporated into the back-matter of books of information in order to satisfy adult requirements, rather than the curiosity of young readers? Sometimes, and as someone has said, an error in one book can lead to the careless repetition of the same error in subsequent books and articles. As unlikely as it is for 4th graders to care about sources and bibliographies, some mature middle school readers and readers older than that do want to find out more. And sometimes, a well written and carefully documented book such as "Black Potatoes" will interest a curious adult reader who might be more likely to notice and even follow-up on back-matter information.
We've all learned so much about documentation during the past several weeks. Thanks to all the writers, editors, reviewers and readers who've shared their thoughts and practices with everyone. Now let's talk about the other NBA nominated books Megan listed in her message earlier today.
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 03 Jan 2003 02:45:34 PM CST
