Historical Methods

Compromises certain techniques and rules that historians follow in order to properly
utilized sources and historical evidences in writing history.
 Historians have to base their accounts on source materials

 Historians need to be able to locate and organize the relevant sources on which
they will base their account
 Historians have to verify sources, to date them, locate their place of origin and
identify their intended functions
Certain rules apply in cases of conflicting accounts in different sources, and on how to
properly treat eyewitness accounts and oral sources as valid historical evidence.

Historical Sources
 Sources – an object from the past or testimony concerning the past on which
historians depend in order to create their own depiction of that past.
 Tangible remains of the past
Written Sources
1. Published materials
Books, magazines, journals, Travelogue, transcription of speech
2. Manuscript [any handwritten or typed record that has not been printed]
Archival materials, Memoirs, diary
       Non - written Sources
Oral history, Artifact, Ruins, Fossils, Art works, Video recordings, Audio recordings 

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources include documents or artifacts created by a witness to or participant
in an event.  They can be firsthand testimony or evidence created during the time period
that you are studying.
Primary sources may include diaries, letters, interviews, oral histories, photographs,
newspaper articles, government documents, poems, novels, plays, and music.  The
collection and analysis of primary sources is central to historical research.
What is a Secondary Source?
Secondary sources analyze a scholarly question and often use primary sources as
evidence.
Secondary sources include books and articles about a topic.  They may include lists of
sources, i.e. bibliographies, that may lead you to other primary or secondary sources.

What is Historical Criticism? 

 In order for a source to be used as evidence in history, basic matters about its
form and content must be settled 
1. External Criticism 
2. Internal Criticism
What is External Criticism?
 Refers to the authenticity of the document.
 Determine the genuineness of the document.
 Form and appearance and more particularly to question of authorship and textual
circumstances such as time, place and purpose.
Examples to test the authenticity of a document
1. Determine the date of the document to see whether they are anachronistic e.g.
pencils did not exist before the 16th Century 
2. Determine the author e.g. handwriting, signature, sea
What is Internal Criticism?
 Refers to the credibility of the document.
 Restore the meaning of the text.
 This is the phase of hermeneutics in which the researcher engages with the
meaning of the text rather than the external elements of the document.

Examples to test the credibility of a document

1. Identification of the author e.g. to determine his reliability; mental processes,
personal attitudes.
2. Determination of the approximate date e.g. handwriting, signature, seal
3. Ability to tell the truth e.g. nearness to the event, competence of witness, degree
of attention 
References:
2021,.History: Primary & Secondary Sources;University of Washington; Tacoma
Library.https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=344285&p=2580599
Siegle, D. 2015,.Historical Research; University of Connecticut.
https://researchbasics.education.uconn.edu/historical_research/
Monte, C., 2018, Introduction to History: definition, issues, sources and methodology;
Reading in Philippine History. https://www.slideshare.net/PennVillanueva/introduction-
to-history-definitionissuessources-and-methodology