Statement of Editorial Principles
The Brock-Reagan Project is managed by certain principles in an effort to accomplish two goals: 1) to edit the letters for uniformity, and 2) to provide access to a large range of materials relating to the correspondence between Margaret Brock and Ronald Reagan. Included are transcriptions and a few photos. We are eager to achieve successful results within the existing constraints of time and resources.
The Pepperdine Archive helps the Brock-Reagan letters survive and we are digitally representing them to adapt to the ever changing digital world. We intend to preserve the integrity of the letters by simply transcribing them, only editing for structural neatness and necessary elements. For example, everything is to be left justified. Any capitalized text within the letters will be transcribed as such. Hyphens breaking words from line-to-line will be adjusted so no words are broken up. Overall, the goal is to not tamper with the meaning of the letters, but if an obvious spelling error occurs, it will be remedied to preserve the intended direction of the text as well.
The Brock-Reagan Project’s approach to editing is to determine consistency as opposed to reconstructing them. Every letter is determined as relevant and our job is to preserve the letters and provide access to them through a digital medium.
Thea Reagan