Transcription Reflection 1

The transcription process was totally new to me and I had plenty of difficulty initially. At first, it seemed as though every other word was something I had never seen before in the English language, or the handwriting was nearly illegible. However, after a few sentences I started to get a hang of it not only because I began to understand how the author wrote certain words or letters, but also because I absorbed the pattern of what the piece was about. Even if I was not one hundred percent sure on a word, based on the rest of the info in the writing, I was able to accurately guess the word. In addition, it was fascinating to read something like Powell’s diary. Very rarely have I had an opportunity to read a primary source document such as this. As difficult as the transcription process was, it was enjoyable to know that I was looking at and reading the handwriting of the work of someone from 1748. This makes the process way more interesting than if it were, for example, a recent post on science or something. It also is fascinating that the journal was written by someone in this area during that time period.