No one can be everywhere at all times to look for information to put into a written form. Other eyes and ears might be needed to extend the range of searching. In the modern world there is no longer a central repository, such as local library, as the only means of finding facts and opinions. The Internet has expanded the search frontier with digital resources. Searching for material might be a matter of putting in the correct words to bring up the desired results. There might be a need to gather everything together for easy reference.
That isn’t to say that a physical library is no longer needed. Sometimes it might seem the Internet has everything at a person’s fingertips. That is not always the case because not everything in the world has been digitized. We are not yet living in the matrix and physical books are still a great source of information. What is often forgotten is just because information is easily found, that doesn’t make it reliable. Facts need to be checked and double checked to make sure they are accurate and even true. That can be a daunting task without some help.
Maybe the information and sources are found, but they need to be correlated for easy reading and reference. A writer can read all the collected research and then do a write up on the material. A synopsis, or general summary, can be produced for later recall or reference. A long or short version of the synopsis can be written, depending on needs and how much information has been found.
This is a great service when lots of people will be using the information or volumes of writing should be readily available for retrieval. The source of information might come from one or a handful of places, but it needs to be extracted from them. Diaries, journals, and notes are great places to learn about people or events. In the electronic age hand written manuscripts are becoming more rare, but so are those capable of reading what hasn’t been put into a computer. Transcriptions are often associated with audio or video captioning.
What is less realized is how much is out there that hasn’t been typed up or words digitized. That can take time and a careful eye to handwriting detail. Caution must be expressed that some handwriting can be very difficult to interpret, and even the most professional can be unsure. If you want your own handwriting transcribed, make sure it is the clearest possible. Jotting down notes for an extended writing assignment requires lots of communication to avoid misunderstandings.
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