I found the sources I need. Now, what?
- Consult your assignment description. How does your instructor want you to work with or make sense of these sources?
- Analyze your sources.
- Develop your interpretation.
Here are some of the analysis questions you should ask (from Do History and Carleton College).
Initial Analysis
- What is it?
- Who created it? What do you know about the creator and their identities (race, class, gender, occupation, etc.)?
- When and where was it created?
- How and why was it created?
- Who was the intended audience/user?
- What questions does this source raise? What don’t we know about this source?
- What other information do we have about this document or object?
Deeper Analysis
- Is it prescriptive — telling you what people thought should happen — or descriptive — telling you what people thought did happen?
- Does it describe ideology and/or behavior?
- Does it tell you about the beliefs/actions of the elite, or of “ordinary” people? From whose perspective?
- What historical questions can you answer using this source? What are the benefits of using this kind of source?
- What questions can this source NOT help you answer? What are the limitations of this type of source?
- If we have read other historians’ interpretations of this source or sources like this one, how does your analysis fit with theirs? In your opinion, does this source support or challenge their argument?
For more help with analyzing primary sources, try Making Sense of Evidence by George Mason University. “Making Sense of Documents” provide strategies for analyzing online primary materials, with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources. “Scholars in Action” segments show how scholars puzzle out the meaning of different kinds of primary sources, allowing you to try to make sense of a document yourself then providing audio clips in which leading scholars interpret the document and discuss strategies for overall analysis.
