how to analyze primary source l how to analyze primary sources in resear...

When analyzing the main sources, you will take on the most important work of a historian. There is no better way to understand past events than to check the sources of information left by people in these periods, whether the information is journals, newspaper articles, letters, court records, novels, artworks, music, or autobiography.
Every historian, including you, will use sources with different experience and skills, so the document will be interpreted differently. Remember, there is no correct explanation. However, if you do not work carefully, you may come up with wrong interpretations.

1. In order to analyze the main sources, you need information about two things: the document itself and the era it came from. You can get information about the time period based on the readings you do in class and in class. You need to consider the document itself. When starting to analyze the source, the following questions may help you:
2. Look at the physical properties of the source. This feature is especially important and powerful if you are dealing with the original source (that is, the actual old letter, rather than the transcription and release version of the same letter). What can you learn from the source code form? (Is it written on fancy paper with fine handwriting or on note paper with pencil?)
3. What does this tell you? Consider the purpose of the source. What is the author’s message or argument? What is he/she trying to travel through? Is the message an explicit message or an implicit message?
4. How does the author try to convey information?
5. What method does he/she use? What do you know about the author? Race, gender, class, occupation, religion, age, region, political beliefs? Does it matter? how about it? Who constitutes the target audience?
6. Is this source for the eyes of a person or for the public? How does this affect the source? What can reading the text (even the object) tell you? How does the language work? What are the important metaphors or symbols?
7. What can the author's language choice tell you? How about silence? What the author chooses not to talk about?