Non-Competitive Research

Research (learning) vs Documentation (explanatory write-up)

Reasons to study: Improve your garb and gear, understand your personas context, learn a new skill, get inspired. Synergy learning about one aspect can illuminate another.

On Facebook: I don't understand how people can look at a [sculpture] and figure out everything [about making] the dress. It's witchcraft!

My response: You cant, from one. You have to look at lots of them, from different angles. And paintings. And read what people write about clothing. Eventually it comes together.

Casual research reading books, looking at extant finds by surfing museum sites, looking at other SCAdian documentation.

PRO: Less stressful, more natural way to learn, little details soak into your subconscious (correct or not!)

CON: No paper-trail, so its hard to go back to cite / confirm / learn more. Source amnesia can confuse real research with fiction / non-scholarly experiments

Focused research spurred by a specific project. Seeking out info on that topic, taking notes as you go. Use each sources citations to go deeper.

PRO: Efficient, learn a lot about one thing, paper outline writes itself

CON: Requires focus!

Types of sources:

Primary -

Secondary

Tertiary

Beware the bias of the reporter (Christianization, romanticizing, censorship of sexual material, political rivals, etc. )

Avoid assumptions - context!! - and modern thinking. Remember their perspective, not yours if you magically transported to their time.

Places to start:

Internet searches use scholarly phrases to narrow the focus (12th century textiles instead of medieval clothing)

Books (including Google books and InterLibrary Loan)

Museums - online collections

Wikipedia for background info and sources only NOT citable, sometimes wrong

Artwork from your period (consider context!)

Academia.com

Portable Antiquities Scheme for anything in the UK

TinEye & Google image search - use to find the source of mystery images

Language barriers: If researching French nautical gear, find a French speaker to help you with French search keywords and translations.

More articles on my website, RomanaSum.com Basic Documentation and Writing Documentation which each have links to more info!