History 4030

Source Analysis Paper 

Length 2-3 pages

For this assignment, you need to locate some document or other primary source that could eventually be part of your research topic. In your paper, you need to think about this document as a source of information/fact/date for yourself as a historian. For preliminary steps, what can you learn about who produced this document, the situation in which it was produced, and the purposes for which it was produced? Examine the content: What does it tell you about, and how much can it tell you? What do you, as a historian, learn about your topic (in general) from this (very particular) document? What are its inherent biases and limitations? What might you need to understand in order to make full use of this document as a historian? Does this document stand alone? Are there other similar or related documents that, combined with this one, might answer some question related to your topic?

You do not necessarily need to address all of these questions, and you do not need to make your essay conform to this particular order. Your essay should, however, make sense and be footnoted; and you should write it with the assumption that I have never seen the document to which you refer, and have no clue what you are talking about unless you tell me.

If you access a primary source document on the World Wide Web, please refer to Turabian, 8.141, to cite appropriately.