Jim Gibb wrote:

>And now a brief sermon:
>
>It is my personal policy not to publish anything unless I can cite the
>original technical report in the publication. It is my hope that this
>will someday become editorial policy for all of the profession's
>peer-reviewed journals. Publication of a piece in a general audience or
>professional journal does not absolve us of our responsibility to
>prepare technical reports. And preparation of technical reports does not
>absolve us of our ethical responsibility to disseminate that which we
>learn through the use of public resources, including funds and
>archaeological resources. Moreover, I distrust any publication--general
>or professional--that is not firmly based on a properly prepared
>technical report.

Absolutely, 100% agreement from this quarter, Jim.

However, I am mystified by your contention that a technical report
must not be also readable and entertaining.  I realize that the
"audience" are forced to read whatever cumbersome drivel we write in
the name of legal and professional requirements, but that doesn't
mean we are barred from making our reports entertaining and
interesting as well as technically complete.

Reports published in the DelDOT series are exactly the same as the
reports submitted to the SHPO. I have never experienced a need to
dumb down or gloss over anything, although they have omitted the
occasional 500-page appendix from the print version.

We are ignoring, at our peril, a large and influential audience of
educated readers who can handle the technical side of our reports,
and who will plow through whatever is necessary to get the
information they want.

Even if there is limited distribution, any report should be
attractive and readable. In particular, private clients need to be
coddled a bit with an attractive report, because so many of them are
already upset at the idea of funding this stuff that is not relevant
to their own mission. If we try to grab their interest, they might
actually enjoy paying for archaeology.

Moreover, you never know who's going to pick up one of your reports.
Gen. and Mrs. Audience might just decide they'd like to hire you to
investigate the potsherds in their flowerbed, because they were
attracted by some technical report you wrote.
--
[log in to unmask]
Heite Consulting
P O Box 53
Camden, DE 19934