{"id":260,"date":"2016-02-14T20:52:58","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T02:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biblionalia.info\/leah\/?p=260"},"modified":"2016-09-25T17:49:25","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T22:49:25","slug":"writing-documentation-step-two-the-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2016\/02\/14\/writing-documentation-step-two-the-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Documentation – Step Two, The Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first post in this series,<\/a> I talked about the basics of writing research \u2013 which are really just the basics of writing. There are lots of \u201chow to write documentation\u201d guides out there, which I will link to in Step Four, The Writing, but even if you\u2019re following an outline\/template\/guide, writing in a clear, concise style that is easy for people to read and understand while pointing them to where they can find out more about The Thing You Did is a skill. And all skills can be honed and tweaked and improved upon.<\/p>\n

But before you can write, before you can even Make the Thing, you need to research.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I do not recommend embarking on projects without doing research first \u2013 and yes, this includes scribal (though scribal research can be as minimal as finding an extant Thing to base your work on). Doing research after the fact is difficult, especially if you\u2019re planning or even considering entering it into any sort of judged faire or competition.<\/p>\n

Do your research first.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How<\/strong> to research is a whole separate topic, so I\u2019ll keep it short and sweet and limit myself to five things:<\/p>\n

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  1. Figure out your keywords \u2013 what words, terms, etc. are used by people who study and write about the Thing use when they are describing it?<\/li>\n
  2. Use search tools like\n