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Purpose of Documentation Documentation is used mainly to assist the judges. Your judges may have some experience with the techniques you used, and yet have no experience in judging. Your documentation must give the judges the information they need to properly judge your entry. It also provides a comparison between how an item was created in period and how it is created now. Your documentation must answer the questions: what, when, where, why, who, and how. You'll need one copy of the documentation per judge (typically 3).
Parts (in the order they should appear)
Title Usually answers at least "what" the item is.
Introduction Keep it brief. This is a good place to tell when & where, and possibly even why and who.
How Then Describe the way this was done in period as accurately as possible. Be careful not to get too detailed. The judges have a limited amount of time and no desire to read a book on the subject. Use footnotes or endnotes where applicable. Also make the paragraph title something meaningful, like "How Shoes Were Made in 1450."
How Now Describe the way you did it. Where your methods and period methods differ, explain why. For example, you may use trigger instead of linen because linen is just too expensive for your budget. You may have used a sewing machine instead of hand-sewing your seams, due to time constraints. That's okay! Just explain it. Again, use a meaningful title, something like "How These Shoes Were Made."
Closing (Optional) A few words at the end may serve to draw the reader's attention back to the most desirable elements of the item.
Illustrations Pictures are wonderful! Use your own drawings too if they will be helpful to the judges. If there is a particular part of a picture that you want to draw attention to, circle it. Be sure to footnote illustrations if needed, and use color copies if it will help get the point across.
Notes Either footnotes throughout the document, or endnotes.
Bibliography Very important!!! It doesn't have to be long but must at least exist.
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