News of Legal Writers: 1970

This is a newsletter for SCRIBES. The Editors of the Cleveland State Law Review are most gratified to have this periodical selected as the official organ for the dissemination of the SCRIBES Newsletter. SCRIBES is the honor society of distinguished legal writers

Searching for Dead Sea Scribes:a study on using Artificial Intelligence and palaeography for writer identification in correlation with spelling and scribal practices, codicology, handwriting quality, and literary classification systems for Dead Sea Scrolls

My study explores the Dead Sea Scrolls through the lens of individual scribes. Specifically, the practices of individual scribes responsible for penningtwo or more of the Oumran manuscripts. It utilises innovative digital palaeographic methods alongside traditional palaeographic approaches for scribalidentification. It gathers previously un-gathered data on the handwriting, spelling practices, codicological features and literary content of individual scribes. The study explores how this data on scribes both supports and challenges various aspects of theories in the field of Dead Sea Scroll studies, which accept a a sectarian origin for the Qumran manuscripts

Can scribes boost FPs\u27 efficiency and job satisfaction

Purpose: Research in other medical specialties has shown that the addition of medical scribes to the clinical team enhances physicians\u27 practice experience and increases productivity. To date, literature on the implementation of scribes in primary care is limited. To determine the feasibility and benefits of implementing scribes in family medicine, we undertook a pilot mixed- method quality improvement (QI) study. Methods: In 2014, we incorporated 4 part-time scribes into an academic family medicine practice consisting of 7 physicians. We then measured, via survey and time-tracking data, the impact the scribes had on physician office hours and productivity, time spent on documentation, perceptions of work-life balance, and physician and patient satisfaction. Results: Six of the 7 faculty physicians participated. This study demonstrated that the use of scribes in a busy academic primary care practice substantially reduced the amount of time that family physicians spent on charting, improved work-life balance, and had good patient acceptance. Specifically, the physicians spent an average of 5.1 fewer hours/week (hrs/wk) on documentation, while various measures of productivity revealed increases ranging from 9.2% to 28.8%. Perhaps most important of all, when the results of the pilot study were annualized, they were projected to generate $168,600 per year--more than twice the$79,500 annual cost of 2 full-time equivalent scribes. Surveys assessing work-life balance demonstrated improvement in the physicians\u27 perception of the administrative burden/paperwork related to practice and a decrease in their perception of the extent to which work encroached on their personal lives. In addition, survey data from 313 patients at the time of their ambulatory visit with a scribe present revealed a high level of comfort. Likewise, surveys completed by physicians after 55 clinical sessions (ie, blocks of consecutive, uninterrupted patient appointments; there are usually 2 sessions per day) revealed good to excellent ratings more than 90% of the time. Conclusion: In an outpatient family medicine clinic, the use of scribes substantially improved physicians\u27 efficiency, job satisfaction, and productivity without negatively impacting the patient experience

The Auchinleck Manuscript: A Study in Manuscript Production, Scribal Innovation, and Literary Value in the Early 14th Century

The Auchinleck Manuscript (National Library of Scotland Advocates 19.2.1) was written in London by six scribes and contains 44 extant texts. This manuscript is an early 14th century English manuscript (c. 1331) best known for its many unique and first versions of texts, such as the first version of the Breton lay Sir Orfeo, a Breton adaptation of the Orpheus legend. It is also the first literary manuscript we have that is written almost entirely in English after the Norman Conquest. My research provides answers to some of the perennial questions raised by scholars concerning this manuscript: the identities of the master artist, the patron, and the scribes as well as the date and provenance. I have identified that the master artist for the Auchinleck was the Subsidiary Queen Mary Artist although his contribution is mostly indirect, that the wealthy patron commissioning the manuscript was tied to the Warwick title and most likely was Thomas de Beauchamp, and that the scribes were Chancery clerks who created this manuscript in London c. 1331. I demonstrate that the physical evidence, the mise-en-page, the work of the artists, the scribal agency in decision-making, and the unique content of the texts establish that the scribes and artists were working collaboratively to create this important literary English manuscript and were very likely conscious of its political impact. My analysis also demonstrates for the first time that there were two different scribal teams, a senior team and a junior team, with the senior scribes having agency and supervision over the junior scribes. My new presentation of their scribal collaboration helps not only to further clarify the identity of these scribes but also to make sense of many decisions made in the mise-en-page. Lastly, I also discuss the impact the contents of the Auchinleck literature appears to have had on its powerful patron, Thomas de Beauchamp, as he, his brother John, and their friend King Edward III prepared their countrymen for the Hundred Years War