Key to terms used in physical descriptions
The project takes the form of a small booklet, constructed by the child, containing alternating card and paper pages. It is made up of two pieces of plain white card and two pieces of plain white paper cut (very roughly; the edge of the sheets are jagged), to A4 size, placed in alternating layers (one on top of the other, with the first sheets of card forming the front and back cover), folded together down the centre, and stapled along the fold (in 3 places: top, bottom and middle). Unless otherwise stated all writing is in black biro. Note: brown fibretip markings down side of last 4 pages and across top may or may not be be intentional (could have been applied after completion or indicate lines used for guidance prior to cutting out).
cover page [ next page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ] (Cover page)
Surface: card, bottom right corner creased, showing evidence of handling; words: 'Bats' is written in 2 layers: thin fibretip beneath thick fibretip; other words: biro; rough surface beneath letters 'ow' in word 'know' indicate alteration to earlier draft (tippex or use of eraser?); some smudging of biro; drawing: the moon is outlined carefully, in pencil, using a faint, precise, continuous, circular line, indicating use of some kind of template for guidance, and coloured in, relatively roughly, with fibretip; the sky is shaded in pencil, using sweeping, curved strokes; the pencil lines overlapping the fibretip (on bats and on moon) indicate that shading of sky (in pencil) was completed after the fibretip shading of the moon and bats; the stars are drawn in fibretip; the bats are outlined in pencil and coloured in, fairly roughly, with fibretip (some pencil marks visible beneath fibretip); the bat in the centre (ie the one directly under the word 'Bats') is made up of two layers of substances, a layer of pencil marks (strong, heavy strokes) over the fibretip, creating a glossy, indented texture, which catches the light.
Notes: In general, the strokes give a strong sense of physical action involved in producing the picture; also, indentation (in moon) of words on reverse side , shows pressure used on following page. There is evidence of accidental damage: white spots on moon and some of bats (where colour has been washed away) indicate that some liquid (colourless -probably water) has been accidentally splattered on the cover either during or after its construction.
page 1 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: card (reverse side of front cover); words, numbers, underlining and symbol at bottom of page: biro (but author information at top is in blue, not black like the rest of the project); some very strong marks, indicating heavy pressure – also, indentations on cover page provide further evidence of pressure used here; tippex (spread fairly thinly over a large area beneath words) indicates alteration to earlier draft, words of draft visible beneath tippex, indicating page previously cointained a 'word game' based on the word 'Bats', also another (thicker) layer of tippex beneath words 'survey' and 'skeleton' indicate alteration to form or position of words.
page 2 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: paper, fairly crumpled, bottom right corner creased (4 crease marks) indicating much handling; words, page number, underlining: biro (some strong marks indicating heavy pressure; indented impression of p2 appears on page 4; this also indicates that p2 (at least) was written after the booklet had been constructed); tippex (lots, applied fairly thickly,and sometimes smudged creating rough surface, as on p1) beneath individual words: 'flying', 'different', 'favourite', 'pipistrelle','eat', 'eyes', 'squeaks', 'called', and whole of last 3 lines of 'Echolocation' section) indicates considerable (deliberate, careful, thoughtful) alteration to earlier draft, also splodge of tippex top right (may be accidental), some smudging of tippex suggests difficulty in writing over it (perhaps not waiting until it was completely dry); note difference between the two underlinings: one (at top) a heavy, firm, stroke , the other lighter. Chart: lines of chart, arrows, pictures of bats and sounds are in biro, outgoing sound and returning echoe are represented in different shades of yellow fibretip, flies’ bodies are in fibretip, but legs and heads in biro; tippex below bat in top box indicates alteration to its shape and, to one originally on left side of bottom box, a complete change of position. Note: Decisions to do with choice of media (substance and colour) indicate deliberate attention both to accuracy in visual representation (both 'realistic' and 'symbolic'), as well as ease of use (eg fine biro line enables child to limit the size of the insect, depicting the legs more clearly than would be possible with fibretip, and at same time to give it a delicate, 'realistic' appearance, while colour appears to be used in a 'symbolic’ way to distinguish between two 'invisible' things: different types of sound).
page 3 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: paper (reverse side of page 2); words, numbers and underlining: biro; tippex (applied thickly, and smudged, creating rough surface, as on p1) beneath words: 'horseshoe', 'Brown', 'Whikerd' indicating alteration to earlier draft. Note: There’s a difference between the two underlinings: one (at top) a heavy, firm, straight stroke , the other a lighter and more wavy stroke; also difference between numbers (generally lighter strokes) and words (generally heavier strokes).
page 4 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: card, indented impression of words and pictures of p2 indicates page p4 used as support; words, underlining, lines linking words to drawing: biro, with tippex applied thickly and sometimes smudged, creating rough surface (as on p1) beneath individual words: 'cold regions', 'crannies', 'hollow', 'illegal', 'planted', and between words: 'places' - 'such', 'is' - 'illegal', and 'disturb' - 'bats' indicating considerable alteration to earlier draft; underlining is light and reflects backwards and forwards repetitive left-right-left movement, rather than a firm straight line across the page; drawing: the bat is outlined in pencil (faint partially erased pencil line below final version indicates alteration to earlier draft), a small area shaded in biro (or is this accidental?), the bat box is coloured in with fibretip, with some features in pencil and biro, a faint pencil line partially visible around bat box indicates earlier drafting.
page 5 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: card (reverse side of p4); indentation indicates pressure of strokes on previous page; words, initials, numbers: biro, with tippex (applied thinly over 5 sets of initials indicating alteration to original list, and thickly in strip to right of title, indicating possible alteration to layout in earlier draft: results of survey, and strip of tippex, continue on p10, (ie the other half of p 5, before it was folded and incorporated into the booklet), and there is a biro line down the fold in the middle (where it is now stapled) suggesting that the results were originally presented as a double page spread with a title across the top, now tippexed out; underlining, dividing line, 'total' lines: biro; note contrast between heavy underlining (under title) and very faint dividing line down centre of page, also use of ruler (or other straight instrument) for underlining and 'total' lines (nb slip of pen against ruler, in total on right).
page 6 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: paper; words: biro, but a different (lighter) pen from the previous pages; note correction to word ‘stories’ ('story' or 'storys' in earlier draft) ; imported material (cartoon picture): self-adhesive sticker, stuck (at a slight angle) so that it covers the letter 'Y' in the word 'storys' (-held to the light, the tail of the 'Y' is visible through the sticker). Note: the bottom line of the letter 'S' follows the edge of the sticker, overlapping it slightly, indicating that the 'S' was added later, which suggests that the word in the earlier draft was 'story' rather than 'storys' and that that the child made a grammatical alteration rather than simply a spelling correction.
pages 7-8 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: paper (centre page spread); note brown fibretip marks at left side, may be result of slips of pen when colouring in the back cover or the side of the sheet; also indented impression of words on p9, indicating heavy pressure of stroke in words and drawing on following page (completed after the booklet had been constructed). Words: fine fibretip; underlining and page numbers: biro; tippex at bottom of center fold (number '6' just visible, indicating alteration to page number of earlier draft); drawing: pencil, very light stroke for most of bones, but ribcage is noticeably heavier; erased pencil lines of main body indicate earlier drafting; wings and legs very lightly, delicately (hesitantly?) drawn (note backward and forward movement of pencil, not a straight line), skull shaded in with pencil.
page 9 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: paper (reverse side of p8); words and number: biro, heavy pressure (- indented impression of words on this page appear on pages 7 and 8); tippex beneath word 'horseshoe' indicates alteration to earlier draft; drawings: outlined and coloured in with fibretip (faint partially erased pencil lines visible, indicating use for guidance); small neat blob of tippex (top bat, lower edge of right wing) indicates alteration. Note: brown fibretip marks along top edge and part of the way along the left side (see general comments).
page 10 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: card; words and page number: biro; tippex applied heavily in strip top left (continued from p5 -see notes on this page) also over one set of initials, and beneath word 'were', indicating alteration to earlier draft; underlining, dividing line, 'total' lines: biro, straight, ruled.
page 11 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: card (reverse of p10), with brown fibretip marks along top edge and part of the way along the left side (see general comments above); words, page number, underlining and 'equal' sign: biro -note distinctive strokes for underlining (see also p4); map: outlined in pencil, faint dotted pencil line indicating boundaries between areas, coloured in with fibretip (green area; note sweeping strokes extend over outline, not contained within it) and crayon (striped areas, stripes very carefully postioned, contained within outline), note distinctive strokes (compare with use of pencil on front cover); colour key to map: crayon.
page 12 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: paper, quite crumpled; words and numbers: biro; tippex applied in smooth strip top right (above words), beneath word 'some', immediately to right of word 'bats', down left side and below number 13, tiny blob to left of middle bat, and long strip (smudged) beneath whole of second line of writing, also erased pencil marks visible beneath first line of writing, together indicating considerable alteration to earlier draft; underlining: biro, note difference in type of stroke (top bat: continuous, firm; middle bat: side to side, lighter, more hesitant; bottom bat: not continuous but less hesitant than the middle bat) drawings: outlined in pencil, some features indicated in pencil (note different kind of stroke used for each torso: light, short, broken strokes for the top bat, heavy, longer continuous strokes for the middle bat, very light,curling, continuous stroke for bottom bat) also wings (faint lines for top and bottom bats, very strong, heavy line for middle bat), whole body of bat in centre shaded in with pencil (note light sweeping strokes continue over outline, not quite contained within it); eyes: fibretip, mouth and left wing of top bat and mouth of middle bat: biro.
page 13 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: paper (reverse side of p12), quite crumpled, brown fibretip marks along top edge and part of the way along the left edge (see general comments above) and brown smudgy marks down right side (perhps indicating handling after / during work on back cover?), heavy indented impression of drawing on reverse indicates pressure of stroke used in creating drawing of middle bat on p12; words, page number and underlining: biro; (note underlining is different from previous pages: broken line, fitting around lower parts of letters, also repeated, faint lines, just below the main line); word 'encyclopeadia' continues onto p14, indicating booklet completed before this page was produced.
page 14 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: card (inside back cover); words, page number: biro (heavy stroke, a lot of smudging); mark top right corner: biro, with scribble used to cover up printed code number.
page 15 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ NA51 index ]
Surface: card (back cover), coloured in thick brown fibretip (long sweeping strokes, more dense at top than lower down), fine black fibretip line runs horizontally across the page (approx 1/3 of way down) visible beneath the brown fibretip; layer of vertical pencil lines over one small area, on top of the fibretip (just to right of centre, about half way down the page); words, numbers, copyright symbol, bar code: fine fibretip, words bottom left appear to be beneath brown fibretip, indicating that writing was completed first, before the back was coloured in; frame: 2 layers: fine fibretip beneath thick black fibretip, indicating care taken with drafting. Accidental damage: marks (look like grease stains) splattered top right corner, suggest something spilled on book at some point during or after production.