Alia Nearpass
Staff Writer

On Sept. 12, Florida Southern English, Spanish and Honors students participated in the Transcribathon. The event took place in McKay Archives Center and has been an annual event on campus since 2018.

The Transcribathon has only grown in popularity drawing in more student participation each year. The students and faculty worked to transcribe old handwritten documents and letters by typing them into readable ones. The process by which this is accomplished is very intricate and unique. The act of transcribing entails the use of specific software that allows for the documents to become legible in modern English.

 Dr. Melissa Garr, Associate Professor of Spanish, and other professors encouraged many of their students to attend the event and saw a great turnout. Garr shared her experience at the Transcribathon. She highlighted the use of a digital transcribing software called Dromio, where a document is uploaded and scanned, so it is accessible. From here, students were able to see exactly what they were transcribing. Before the actual transcribing took place, students received training that gave specific instructions on how to use the software and transcribe the documents.

One of the reasons transcription is important is because it gives people the ability to access and understand very old documents. Transcription is the process of taking handwriting and making it readable for people to understand in the English we use today. Garr also explained that it makes these documents searchable and accessible by individuals who are visually impaired. The documents were written during different time periods when grammar and spelling were not the same as they are today. This makes it hard to read and understand their content. When the handwritten documents are transcribed and then typed, they become  clearer to the reader.

For Garr and her students, transcribing was a collaborative group effort. They mainly focused on documents that have been previously transcribed, but still found captivating stories. In future years, Garr hopes to find documents that have et to be transcribed.

Garr emphasized an interesting story that was written in the 1580s by the governor of Cholula, a city in Mexico. “Relateo Cholula” was the title of the letter, and the author describes his journey to an unfamiliar land. He wrote about everything he experienced from the indigenous people and their language, to the two plagues that affected the population. While many of the documents were written in different forms of old English, the ones. Garr and her students transcribed were in Spanish. 

“In some ways these documents were easier to transcribe” said Garr, as the Spanish grammar has not changed since the year 1492.

“It’s surprising how fun it is,” Garr said. “It’s engrossing, and you don’t realize how much time you spend doing it until you look at the time,” Garr said. 

She added that not only is it fun, but it’s also important work. In addition, she also made the point that these records and documents were meant to be preserved, and it is important to discover why.

The seventh Transcribathon proved to be a success, drawing enthusiastic participation from students and faculty alike. Garr encourages everyone to take part in this captivating experience, where history comes alive through the written word. Whether you’re a history buff, a language enthusiast, or simply curious about the past, the Transcribathon offers a unique opportunity to connect with history in a meaningful way.