Talk:Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions
| Information about this edition | |
|---|---|
| Edition: | Modified copy of 1840 edition |
| Source: | http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/2821/rec/4 |
| Contributor(s): | Robert Horning |
| Level of progress: | Text still being added
|
Style[edit]
Perhaps this is just a 19th Century issue, or because of Orson Pratt's age at the time he wrote the content, but the punctuation in use as found in the original manuscript is absolutely bizzare with a huge over abundance of commas and other punctuation, run-on sentances, and other huge grammatical errors that would have caused huge grief to any modern editor.
I have not touched the word order or tried to do anything with the content, but I have tried to clean up some of these punctuation issues that simply make the text unreadable, and have broken up the monster paragraphs (this is a style of 19th century writing) into something a bit easier to read as well, by trying to stick with common themes as would be more akin to modern paragraph styles. This may be a controversial decision, but I'm trying to make this something readable for a modern scholar who may not be quite so used to the literary styles of the 19th Century.
Of course, I should note that the excerpt by Oliver Cowdery that is included in this tract doesn't seem to have nearly as many grammatical errors of this nature, so it may just be something of the writing style of the early writings of Orson Pratt. Being a missionary in 1840's Scotland wouldn't have too much in terms of literary resources to help clean this up, so it is a product of the times as well.
I'm not hard sold that this is the way that the text of this tract should be treated, and a "restoration" to earlier grammatical styles can be done if you want to take the time to flush through them. Just leave a note here on this talk page explaining your actions and motivations if you decide to go this route. --Robert Horning 12:19, 16 July 2007 (UTC)