Amen, Suzanne. And I would add to that 'legible handwriting'. Ten years ago my son's kindergarten teacher told me, when I expressed concern about his handwriting, "It's not HOW they write, but THAT they write." Wrong. He is now studying calligraphy in art class and I am hopeful that his chicken scratch will transform into legible writing.

If the artifact labels are illegible, all is lost, but it sure is hard to re-train a 23-year old to write.
Laura

At 10:06 AM 8/25/2005, you wrote:
A hint for new grads --

All other qualifications being equal, I will always hire the person who has accurate spelling and punctuation.  A lot of museum work involves writing, whether it's correspondence with the public, exhibit text, or articles for scholarly publications.  It may seem like a minor thing, but when I see typos and mistakes in someone's correspondence (or resume), I wonder if they're as careless in other aspects of their work.

Suzanne Fischer
Curator of Material Culture
Louisiana State Museum
P.O. Box 2448
New Orleans, LA  70176
[log in to unmask] < mailto:[log in to unmask]>
 
504-568-5459 office
504-599-1950 fax

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).

Laura H. Nightengale
Head of Collections
Texas Archeological Research Laboratory
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station R7500
Austin, TX 78712-0714
512-475-6853 ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).