Thursday, June 3, 2010

Research Reports: Meeting the Standards -- Claire Bettag, CG, CGL

I want to learn how to write good research reports, so I chose this class taught by Clair Bettag. She was extremely well-qualified and her class was very comprehensive.
She declared that both professional and hobbyist genealogists will want to report their work clearly, concisely, comprehensively -- for clients, family, or themselves.

I was introduced to The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual by the Board for Certification of Genealogists, Millennium Edition, Helen Leary, editor, Ancestry Publishing, Provo, Utah, 2000. And I later purchased this book at the NGS Conference in the NGS booth.

Clair Bettag explained the various forms that reports can take: letter, formal, memorandum, other forms and charts. She detailed what the content should be and talked about appendices and style. She was very clear about exactly what clients should expect from a report when they hire someone to perform research. She gave tips about how to write the report as you do the research thereby saving report-writing time.

Because of her class I now have a better appreciation for the work of professional genealogists and a resolve to write good reports for myself and my family.

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