Page 277 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

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Report planning
Reports make the most important components, descriptions and results of a project accessible. Their elaboration requires time and effort. Their success and usefulness depend on their systematic, logical and appropriate format.
The form to be chosen for reporting must be precisely planned and defined prior to commencing any actual work. It should be set out in the project design. This guarantees that all vital information is registered according to a consistent method throughout all stages, and that professional standards are met. This means that the scope and form of reports need to be fixed, a schematic blueprint of the final report needs to be devised and decisions on how to archive and publish documentation need to be made.
The nature of data constituting the basis of a report depends on the site from which it comes. It depends also on the type of intervention undertaken. Non- intrusive interventions produce other information than excavations, and equally important reports deal with the accidental discovery of an artefact or site. In each case, the methods of documentation and representation need to satisfy professional standards. In cases of rescue excavations, it may be necessary to choose less labour- and time-intensive documentation techniques. The most important features would, however, still demand detailed descriptions. Under pressure, it is important to determine priorities and make the right professional choices. What is documented will in one way or another continue to exist whereas what is not documented can never become part of our common memory. In other words, the conditions of a rescue intervention do not reduce the responsibility for proper exploration and documentation of the site.
Stages of report writing
The following stages are involved in writing a report:
• Clarification of purpose, terms of reference, objectives and audience
Reporting