In transcribing the Vernon Goetz Diary, we have attempted to be as faithful as possible to the original text.   However, certain textual alterations and additions were made for the sake of clarity.

• Punctuation. For the sake of clarity, we have changed Goetz’s many textual dashes, which he used in place of commas, semicolons, and periods, to the appropriate punctuation.
• Abbreviations. Goetz’s abbreviations have been retained. Those that are not well known have either been explained in footnotes or defined in the “Glossary of Military Terms and Abbreviations.”  Ampersands (&) have been changed to “and.”
• Spelling. Words have been transcribed with the same spelling used in the diary. Some misspellings have been silently corrected to avoid confusion.
• Editorial insertions. Square brackets have been used to indicate places in the text where the editors have inserted letters, a word, or a date that was not in the original text; italicized words in square brackets indicate editorial comments on the text, such as [torn] or [illegible].
• Annotation. We have tried to make the diary transcription comprehensible to the modern reader by providing footnotes defining, where possible, people, places, and events mentioned in the diary. Military terms and abbreviations are occasionally defined in footnotes, but, in general, are explained in the “Glossary of Military Terms and Abbreviations,” preceding the text. Sources of information for footnotes have generally been included at the end of the note. However, we have not cited such basic reference works as the Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, and the Merriam Webster Encyclopedia.     
• Inserts.  Vernon Goetz stapled or otherwise attached a variety of cards, documents, photographs, and other printed ephemera to the back of the pages of his diary. Images of these inserts can be found with the Diary page or on the Diary Inserts page, arranged according to the diary entry date to which they were attached.