Qualitizing Oral History Works-1

Mahya Hafezi
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2023-9-21

The Iranian Oral History Website has conducted short conversations with some experts and practitioners on the topic of how to improve oral history books or memoirs, the results of which will be presented to the readers in the form of short notes and in several parts.

■ Linking photo and appendix documents to the book text

The selection of photos and documents at the end should be related to the contents of the book. To improve quality of the work, it is suggested to link these photos and documents to the text. It is better to include the page number of the text in the caption of the photo and document; put also number of the document or related photo in parentheses in the main body so that the audience can easily access it.

■ Detailed descriptions for photos and documents

Captions are necessary for photos and documents in the book; but the more accurate this caption, the higher quality of the work will be. In addition to linking the photo and document to the text, and providing the identity information of the photo and document, there are subtler points that should be considered. Observing these points will increase the audience's research connection with the book.

■ Typesetting the document text

The text of some documents is illegible and will cause the researcher to use them less. Typesetting the text will increase quality of the work.

■ Indexing and commentary

In order to attract researchers more to the oral history book, it is necessary to carefully index the book. The more the content index of the book, the higher its research rank will be. In the index, names of people and places are always present; But you can add other lists to it according to content of the book. For example, for an oral history book on the topic of Holy Defense, indexes of operations, terms, weapons, names of martyrs, etc. can also be prepared.

To be continued...