Primary Source document analysis

Question 1

What should you look for when analyzing the source?

Answer 1

1. What is the physical nature of the source?
   - is it an original, old document, or is it a new published version of the document?
   -What is the handwriting like? (What does this say about the source? [ex: academic article = students/academics, website = general public, book = someone who has an interest in the topic being presented
2. What is the purpose of the source?
   - What is the message/argument?
3. How does the author get the message across?
   -Methods used
4. What do we know about the author?
   - Race, ethnicity, occupation, religion, political beliefs, etc.
   -Why does this matter? How does it affect the nature of the source?
5. Who is the intended audience?
   -Meant for public or private eyes?
6. What can a careful analysis prove?
   -Language use
   -What does the author NOT talk about

Question 2

What should you look for when evaluating a source?

Answer 2

1. Is it prescriptive or descriptive?
2. Does it describe any ideologies or behaviors?
3. Any beliefs/actions of a social class (elite or ordinary)
   -from whose perspective?
4. What are the benefits of using this source?
5. What are the limitations of this source?
   - What questions can’t you answer?
6. If we read other historians interpretation of this source, how does your analysis match theirs?

Question 3

What is the difference between PREscriptive and DEscriptive?

Answer 3

Descriptive = what people think DID happen
Prescriptive = what people think SHOULD have happened