You will find here a few simple guidelines on writing scholarly essays, articles and reports. They were created for students in historic buildings, so there is a certain flavour of built heritage about them. The principles apply more widely though.
For those wondering how to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to material on the Web, Internet Detective is an excellent and entertaining tutorial on online research. It includes guidance on the citation of online sources.
Working with the authorities
A great deal of the research on historic buildings being undertaken in the UK and Ireland today is by or for local and national authorities. Much research is directed towards obtaining official consent for alterations to (or conservation of) listed buildings (UK) or protected structures (Eire). Useful guides to producing reports for these purposes include:
- Kate Clark, Informed Conservation: Understanding historic buildings and their landscapes for conservation (English Heritage 2001). An extract is reproduced here with the author's consent. (Click on reports in the menu left.)
- The Historic Towns Forum has published this free guide: Making Better Applications for Listed Building Consent [pdf].
- In the Republic of Ireland, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage Handbook [pdf] was drafted to guide surveyors in the field who carry out the NIAH county surveys. It outlines the method and standard for recording a structure in the field and creating an NIAH record.
- Guidance on Inventory and Documentation of the Cultural Heritage (Council of Europe 2009). Includes the core data index to historic buildings and monuments of the architectural heritage.
- And see aids to recording and interpreting fabric.