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Archiver > TMG > 2005-01 > 1106067133


From: Lee Hoffman <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Individual Narrative issues
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 11:52:13 -0500
References: <20050117.233912.3748.14.dean.scribner@juno.com>
In-Reply-To: <20050117.233912.3748.14.dean.scribner@juno.com>


Dean Scribner wrote:
>Darrell writes:
> >This begs the question about why these sentences cause problems.<
>
>They don't cause ME any problems. The original question was whether
>default sentences should normally need to be customized for the
>Individual Narrative. And the answer is YES, if you want a really
>respectable narrative, the caveat being to evaluate first how that will
>affect whatever other reports you may want to procuce.

I would agree with this. Elizabeth Shown Mills would also agree except
that her statement is that no computer (read genealogy as opposed to word
processor) program can produce an interesting, well-phrased, and readable
narrative. And I would agree _to_a-point_. While no off-the shelf program
with basic data entry can create an acceptable narrative, TMG can produce
such a narrative although with work. That work would mean entering the
data and adjusting Sentences as needed and desired to achieve a reasonable
narrative. Then one would generate the narrative, identify areas (meaning
Sentences and entered data) that need further adjustment, edit those
Sentences and data, and then do this all over again continually until the
desired narrative can be generated without further editing in a word processor.

The difference here is that Ms. Mills proposes to only generate the
narrative one time while I propose that you must make changes within TMG
and generate the narrative many times.

Any narrative worth producing is worth the work of making it readable and
interesting. TMG, like many other genealogy programs, can produce
narrative that are readable and generally correct grammatically. But
unlike many other such programs, TMG provides the ability to alter the
sentences that make up the narrative to also make it interesting to
read. Most programs will only produce narratives that are rote listings of
data each the same as the last notwithstanding the names, dates, and
places But the TMG user can adjust the Sentences to make even the initial
narrative more interesting -- but it will take work and a certain amount of
creativeness to achieve the desired results.


Lee Hoffman/KY
TMG Tips: <http://www.tmgtips.com>;
My website: <http://www.tmgtips.com/lhoffman>;
A user of the best genealogy program, The Master Genealogist (TMG)


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