Editorial Guidelines

forgingUS follows the transcription practices developed by The Papers of George Washington to ensure that historical documents are presented with accuracy, consistency, and transparency. Transcriptions preserve the original spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and formatting of manuscripts as closely as practicable, while applying limited editorial interventions only when necessary to clarify meaning or indicate missing or illegible text. These conventions allow readers to engage directly with historical sources while maintaining the scholarly standards long associated with documentary editing at the University of Virginia.

General Principles

• Preserve original spelling, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviations, and formatting whenever possible.

• Editorial intervention should be minimal and clearly indicated.

• Add terminal punctuation at the end of paragraphs if absent in the manuscript (except in closings/signatures).

• Omit addresses written at the bottom of letters.

• Preserve the author’s paragraphing style after the opening paragraph.

• Datelines, regardless of their location on the manuscript, should appear at the top of the document and be flush right.

• Salutations should appear at the top of the document and be flush left.

• Closings should be attached to the end of the last paragraph, in sentence form, rather than stringing them out onto several lines.

• NOTE: For previously published documents,