primary source critique essay

When you analyze a primary source, you are undertaking the most important job of the historian. There is no better way to understand events in the past than by examining the sources--whether journals, newspaper articles, letters, court case records, novels, artworks, music or autobiographies--that people from that period left behind. Each historian, including you, will approach a source with a different set of experiences and skills, and will therefore interpret the document differently. Remember that there is no one right interpretation. However, if you do not do a careful and thorough job, you might arrive at a wrong interpretation. In order to analyze a primary source you need information about two things: the document itself, and the era from which it comes. You can base your information about the time period on the readings you do in class and on lectures. On your own you need to think about the document itself. The following questions may be helpful to you as you begin to analyze the sources: 1. Look at the physical nature of your source. This is particularly important and powerful if you are dealing with an original source (i.e., an actual old letter, rather than a transcribed and published version of the same letter). What can you learn from the form of the source? (Was it written on fancy paper in elegant handwriting, or on scrap-paper, scribbled in pencil?) What does this tell you? 2. Think about the purpose of the source. What was the author's message or argument? What was he/she trying to get across? Is the message explicit, or are there implicit messages as well? 3. How does the author try to get the message across? What methods does he/she use? 4. What do you know about the author? Race, sex, class, occupation, religion, age, region, political beliefs? Does any of this matter? How? 5. Who constituted the intended audience? Was this source meant for one.
The process. In the process of critical analysis, a student closely examines a single text (in this case, a primary document) written by a single author in an attempt to understand why the author wrote the particular text, in a particular way, to a particular audience, and for what purpose. Thus, the student seeks to determine: 1) what the author argued or described, 2) how the author presented his/her argument or interpretation, 3) why the author chose that method of presentation and persuasion (in other words, what did the author view as the evidence and arguments that would most likely persuade his/her audience, what assumptions did the author expect his/her audience shared, and what assumptions did the author challenge), and 4) what the author ultimately hoped to achieve by writing the text. A critical analysis might be considered the first step in reading a document that might later be used as evidence in a research paper. A student engaged in critical analysis probes for underlying assumptions, perceptions, values, and biases—elements that are present in all texts. Once the author’s perspective, method, and purpose have been identified, a scholar can determine how those shape the “evidence” (the author’s descriptions, ideas, concerns, arguments) that the text presented. Some texts present a “narrative” rather than a clearly defined argument. Yet even those texts are influenced by particular values and concerns, and most offer some message, whether implicit or explicit. In the process of critical analysis, the student is not evaluating or judging the accuracy, the validity, the logic, or the persuasiveness of an author’s evidence, ideas, or interpretation. Since the student is not the author’s intended audience--the author was writing to an audience of his/her contemporaries--the analysis does not focus on whether the author has convinced the student of the.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what the essays should look like. So, here’s an example from a similar document study. In this study, the document analyzed was a speech by a nineteenth-century American labour leader dealing with immigration. I will be at a conference all day today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday). If you send me an email during that time, I may not be able to get back to you right away. Thesis statement (in the introduction) Dennis Kearny’s speech shows that American labor leader in the late nineteenth century supported Chinese exclusion because they thought Chinese immigrants took away jobs from white workers. [notice here that the author of the essay is basically saying that this document says X about Y, in Z period] Paragraph in the body of your paper: Kearny blames white workers’ unemployment in part on the slave mentality of Chinese workers. He argues that corporations go as far as China to recruit workers because it is easier to control them “as serfs.”1 He claims that their character predisposes them to obedience: “They are wipped curs, abject in docility, mean, contemptible and obedient in all things.”2 As Eric Foner shows in the texbook, this attitude was shared by the majority of working class white men.3 This notion of innate difference between the “white” and “Asian” races justified Chinese exclusion. [Body paragraphs expand and give evidence for the argument raised in the thesis statement – notice here how she uses information from the textbook to help contextualize her argument] 1 Dennis Kearney, President, and H. L. Knight, Secretary, “Appeal from California. The Chinese Invasion. Workingmen’s Address,” Indianapolis Times, 28 February 1878. 2 Ibid. 3 Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History, Volume 2, Seagull Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005), 75. Purpose of the assignment This is an exercise to allow you to.
Writing a Source Analysis Paper: The Ten-Step Process There are many things that go into writing a good source analysis paper. One might compare it to building a house. Think about it: if you do not take the time to plan for construction, the house will fall. Writing a good thought paper is similar. Here is a ten-step process to help you write a better source analysis paper. These guidelines will help you in writing any short essay. 1) Before reading the documents, write down the assigned question that you are going to address in your paper. Read this question several times to yourself. The purpose of this exercise is to get you thinking about what your answer will be, before you begin reading. 2) Read the documents. Meanwhile, jot down any evidence from the documents that you might want to use in the paper. 3) Write a thesis statement that answers the assigned question. 4) Write down several sub-themes that you would like to address in the paper. Initially, write as many as you think of. Then pick the two most interesting subthemes that you would like to discuss. 5) Write an outline, like one listed below. After completing this outline, you'll find that the paper is virtually written. All you have to do now is write the first draft. Suggested Source Analysis Paper Format: A. Introductory paragraph 1. Write a lead sentence that gains the reader's attention. Example: When speaking of families, it is important not to neglect the issue of sexual behavior. 2. Introduce your thesis or primary argument. Example: The American Revolutionary War was less of a social revolution than it was a fight for economic autonomy. 3. Introduce sub-arguments or sub-themes that you are going to use to support your thesis. B. Body of the paper 1. Discuss the sub-themes that you identified in the introductory paragraph, in separate paragraphs. 2. Write down page numbers of the book (document.