durin' of de war
outmen my daddy (good, but unnecessarily put into quotes)
piddled in de fields
skit of woods
kinder chillish

There are, of course, questionable words, for which it may be hard to
set up a single standard. Such words are:

paddyrollers, padrollers, pattyrollers for patrollers
missis, mistess for mistress
marsa, massa, maussa, mastuh for master
ter, tuh, teh for to

I believe that there should be, for this book, a uniform word for each
of these.

The following list is composed of words which I think should not be
used. These are merely samples of certain faults:

1. ah for I
2. bawn for born
3. capper for caper
4. com' for come
5. do for dough
6. ebry, ev'ry for every
7. hawd for hard
8. muh for my
9. nekid for naked
10. ole, ol' for old
11. ret, raght for right
12. sneik for snake
13. sowd for sword
14. sto' for store
15. teh for tell
16. twon't for twan't
17. useter, useta for used to
18. uv for of
19. waggin for wagon
20. whi' for white
21. wuz for was

I should like to recommend that the stories be told in the language of
the ex-slave, without excessive editorializing and "artistic"
introductions on the part of the interviewer. The contrast between the
directness of the ex-slave speech and the roundabout and at times
pompous comments of the interviewer is frequently glaring. Care should
be taken lest expressions such as the following creep in: "inflicting
wounds from which he never fully recovered" (supposed to be spoken by an
ex-slave).

Finally, I should like to recommend that the words darky and nigger and
such expressions as "a comical little old black woman" be omitted from
the editorial writing. Where the ex-slave himself uses these, they
should be retained.

This material sent June 20 to states of: Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga.,
Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Tenn., Texas,
Va., and S. Car.

[Document 8]

MEMORANDUM
July 30, 1937.

TO: STATE DIRECTORS OF THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
FROM: Henry G. Alsberg, Director

The following general suggestions are being sent to