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NARRATIVE: GETTING THE "DOCUMENT" READY

Most documentation exercises aim to publish a document of some sort, and in this way present and share the results obtained. This is mostly a written piece, which implies a fair amount of editing work, correction of styles, design and printing. Above all else, it implis a lot of writing.

I have drawn some conclusions. So how do I make a convincing story?

 

Follow tips and tools
From Karen Hurt and the CIVICUS team
November, 2009
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, defines itself as "an international alliance established in 1993 to nurture the foundation, growth and protection of citizen action throughout the world, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens' freedom of association are threatened". As one of its activities, it provides resources for civil society organisations. One of the documents on its site looks at "writing effectively and powerfully". This requires the interested author to know why he or she is writing, to identify the audience, and to research the topic thoroughly. Some ways to "get started" include using mindmaps and freewriting. There are also good tips for editing a written text.

Don't forget your main objective
Pankaj Gupta - IFAD - ENRAP Training workshop, Wu Zhong, China
Taking sufficient care so that the documentation process leads to a clear and well written document is very important. However, it is important that all those involved in such a process, as happened with the participants of the training workshop which took place in Wu Zhong in August 2009, internalise the fact that writing a final reporty is not the main end of a systematisation process - but rather a means to address several audiences with different communication products.

Make text attractive
Liz Calderon, UNALM, Lima
As one of the students following the documentation course offered at the La Molina university, Liz Calderon made a thorough analysis of her own documentation efforts. Looking back at what she described, analysed, and wrote, she realised that the final text included all the relevant information, but thatit was not presented in an attractive way. This made for dull reading. It was clear then that readers could have felt happier to go through a text which included figures, diagrams, or photographs. Even plain text can be presented in a nice way, combining different font sizes, or by using headings in a creative way. This is not something that requiresmuch effort, but which greatly contributes to making texts read. And then, remember that being short is not the same as being incomplete.

Take into account who is writing
Cordula Eckert, EMATER/RS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
October, 2009
A documentation process may need to include an external person (who provides assistance, or faciliates the process). But we have to careful when assigning the task of documenating, or systematising, to this external person: "per definition, a systematization process implies the active and direct participation of those who experieced a given process." Many times, those involved in a certain experience request an outsider to write the process down, mentioning a lack of time or also difficulties for writing. This is valid. The final result, however, may be a nice and beautifully written article, and not necessarily a systematization process.

Develop specific writing capacities
MISEREOR's Indian partners in Bangladesh
October, 2009
Perhaps the biggest challenge we have is that related to writing. We are able to pull enough data, we got a tremendous amount of information, but we saw we lack the manpower to use this information. We have the information, but we have lots of difficulties in turning it into a proper document.... A meeting with AME helped all participants realise the importance of what they called "the main components of a document": its completeness, conciseness, accuracy, and also the "humanisation" of the text: making the document easy and interesting to read. A detailed analysis of written pieces showed, for example, that in some cases there are gaps, that there is no flow, that the main message needs to be prominent.

Go for "effective writing"
MISEREOR's Indian partners in Orissa, India
October, 2009
In the same way as the organisation in Bangladesh, the Misereor partners in Orissa were able to gather large amounts of information, which they efficiently organised. But they had difficulties in turning the charts they made into a readable text. Together with AME, they lloked in detail at what was presented as "effective writing": making sure that there is a clear message in the write up, and that each and every idea presented in this text and discussed in it needs to reiterate that message. This is easier if the document follows, in general tertms, a basic pattern, inluding an introduction, a broader body and some conclusions. Just as important is to make sure that the text is easy to read.

Time, and someone in charge
Edith Fernandez Baca, ETC Andes,
October, 2009
ETC Andes has been facilitating different documentation processes, such as those implemented with RAAA in Junin and with El Taller in Arequipa (both in Peru). After several months of work, a final publication is still not ready in some cases. Looking at the El Taller case, we feel that there are several reasons for this. The whole team has been very busy, with too many things going on, and therefore with no time to sit and write, and thus complete their systematization process. But then it might also be that there as not someone to seriously take the task of seeing this finished (pushing eveyone to finish their bit, and writing it all up). The RAAA group had someone doing this, so they will soon have their article published in LEISA Revista de Agroecologia.

Consider the importance of readability
Thiendou Niang, Director, Afrique Communication
September, 2009
Giving some "shape" to the information is an important step in capitalisation, aiming at a readable document. "Readability"is understood here as the ability to read a text without any special effort, understanding and memorizing it in a satisfactory way. (François Richaudeau).  Attention must be given to three issues: The choice of words (the number of syllables per word), the length of the phrases (the number of words per phrase) and the optimal writing of paragraphs. The simpler the words, the easier your text will be easier to understand (and memorize).  To write short sentences is the best way to be understood. A paragraph, considered as the elementary unit of reasoning of an argumentative text, ensures the bond between the isolated sentences. A last element for the readability is constituted by logical links (conjunctions and conjunctive phrases, prepositions and prepositional phrases, and adverbs and adverbial phrases). These "connectors" make the link between the different ideas in the text, and make an easy transition from one sentence to another, and from one paragraph to another.

Follow the format for ordering the existing information
DURAS partners, June 2008
A meeting held in Rome, in June 2008, brought all the DURAS partners together. As this took place a few months after the documentation workshops, it was a good moment to look at their writing experiences. Following the format given in those workshops (on the basis of tables or charts) was helpful: "when the tables were finished it was much easier to write". "I came back to the tables when writing my article, it was then much easier". ANother participant mentioned that using these tables "is a good way to put fragmented information together". And this was also helpful in involving others: "This is a good tool for communicating with our colleagues... different stakeholders can add their opinions, so we can fill in common knowledge..."

Start writing at the workshop itself
VETAID, October 2007
VETAID organised a documentation workshop which took place in Tofu, Inhambane, in October 2007. We went through the "Aprender com a Prática" manual, but went beyond just filling the charts. We all discussed what would a logical framework be for a document, and then all participants tried writing one section of this "future" document. This worked very well - most thought that it was just a matter of making sentences with the information already available; as if tying words up.