Briefly examine the item that you selected, and in
a new document
answer the following questions:
- Look at the physical nature of your source. What can you learn from the medium of the source? (Was it written on fancy paper in elegant handwriting, or on scrap-paper, scribbled in pencil? Typed? Are there things written in margins?) What does this tell you?
- Think about the purpose of the source. What was the author's message or argument? What were they trying to get across? Is the message explicit, or are there implicit messages as well?
- What do you know about the author? Race, class, occupation, religion, age, region, political beliefs? Does any of this matter? How?
- Who constituted the intended audience? Was this source meant for one person's eyes, or for the public?
- Is it prescriptive (telling you what people thought should happen) or descriptive (telling you what people thought did happen)?
- What historical questions can you answer using this source?
- What questions can this source NOT help you answer? What are the limitations of this type of source?
