Page 414 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

Chapter 15: Reports and Publications 393
There is also the option of private publication. This may seem, at first, to be a rather attractive option, but it has to be thought out very carefully if it is to be successful. It may be that a limited number of reports will be sufficient to fulfill obligations to sponsors and funding organizations, with the remainder selling at a small profit for the project. With computer typesetting, a report can be printed by a small offset printing house at a reasonable cost, provided you are prepared to do the time-consuming work and complex typesetting. It should be remembered that it not easy to produce a professional quality layout and typesetting experience will be required. Another important consideration is that it will be difficult to achieve a wide circulation for the report, and that it may not be possible to get the report to the audience for which it is intended.
Since the publication of the first edition of this handbook, the Internet has created another huge area of publication potential. It is today, arguably, far easier to get to a large public and academic audience through the World Wide Web than by any other means. However, this form of publication has its own limitations. Often there is little or no editorial control over mater- ial published in this format and as a result there is a lot of good material and a lot of rubbish. Possibly, one of the most interesting aspects of this form of publication is the ability to publish reports and documents that would not normally be economical to do through conventional print medium. This material is often referred to as “gray literature.” So here is the dilemma: Should you publish on the Internet and forgo any profits, or should you go to the printed format, with the promise (usually unfulfilled) of modest profit? It is a balance and it is unclear how electronic publishing will evolve.
II. WRITING
Archaeological writing is not as difficult as many people think. It is merely the art of putting logical thoughts into a literary form. The follow- ing are some very brief guidelines which may be of help to those who have not written before, or who feel less confident in writing. General advice on writing archaeological reports can be found in Blake and Davey (1983) and Grinsell et al. (1974). There are also a number of useful dictionaries and ref- erence manuals about writing and publication, in particular, the Australian Government Publishing Service (2002), Butcher (1981), Fowler (1968), Lloyd (1982), Onions (1968), Oxford English Dictionary Department (1981), and Oxford University Press (1983).
There are several different types of report that may need to be written at various times. These can be divided broadly into technical and popular.