Chapter 2: Analysis of Selected Primary Sources

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Analyze the context, content and perspectives of different kinds of primary

source.
2. Identify its historical importance of text.
3. Examine the author’s main argument and point of view.

How to analyze Primary Source

Primary source can be analyzed and evaluated by different criteria. These criteria
are the content analysis, contextual analysis, and the author’s main argument or point of
view.
Content analysis is a research method for studying primary sources such as
documents and communication artefacts, which can be text of various formats, pictures,
audio or video. One of the key advantages of this research method is to analyze social
phenomena in a non-invasive way, in contrast to simulating social experiences or
collecting survey answers.
Practices and philosophies of content analysis vary according to the location
communities. They all involve systematic reading or observation of text or artefacts which
are assigned labels (sometimes called codes) to indicate the presence of interesting,
meaningful patterns. After labelling a large set of media, a source researcher is able to
statistically estimate the proportions of patterns in the text, as well as correlations between
patterns.
Nowadays, computers are increasingly used in content analysis of documents to
automate the labelling (or coding) of documents. Simple computational techniques can
provide descriptive data such as word frequencies and document lengths.
According to Klaus Krippendorff, six questions must be addressed in every
content analysis.
1. Which data are analyzed?
2. How is the data defined?
3. From what population are the data drawn?
4. What is the most relevant context?
5. What are the boundaries of the analysis?
6. What is to be measured?
The simplest and most objective form of doing content analysis are the
unambiguous characteristics of the text like word frequencies, the page area taken by a
newspaper column, or the duration of a radio or television program. Analysis of simple
word frequencies is limited because the meaning of a word depends on the surrounding
text. The keyword in context routines address this by placing words in their textual context.
This helps resolve ambiguities such as those introduced by synonyms and homonyms.
The second way of analyzing primary sources is the contextual analysis or simply
called textual analysis. Understanding the historical context of a primary source is critical
understanding the attitudes and influences that shaped the creation of the primary source.
If not placed into historical context, a primary source’s true meaning might be
misinterpreted.
 There are five (5) characteristics to look for when selecting primary sources that the
students will be able to place in historical context:

1. Bibliographic information: Ask these questions how detailed is the item’s

bibliographic record? Do your students need a primary source with a more
descriptive bibliographic record so they can find more leads for their research
project?

2. Creator name and creation/publication date: Are the creator’s name and creation
date available on the primary sources or in the bibliographic record? Are you studying
point of view and therefore need to identify the creator of a particular primary source?

3. Time and topic under study in your classroom: What is the time and topic under
study in your classroom? Is the source considered a primary source (created at the
time under study) or a secondary source (accounts or interpretation of events created
by someone without firsthand experience)?

4. Contextual clues: Are these clues within the primary source that will help students
place the primary source into context? Will students identify clothing, shelter, or any
technology from a certain time period?
5. Extraneous markings or annotation: Will Library of Congress cataloger’s notes or
other markings distract the students and interfere with their ability to place the primary
source into historical context?

Here are some specific questions to ask in analyzing primary sources:

1. What kind of document do you have? Is it a treatise letter, a manuscript or a printed

document?
2. Was it published? If yes, when and where?
3. Who is the author? What position, role, reputation, status, did the author have at the
time of writing?
4. Is the author well-known today or at the time of writing?
5. Who is the intended audience?
6. Who read this text at the time? What were the responses of those who read?
7. What was to be gained and what were the risks in writing this text?
8. How is this document related to other primary documents known to you, particularly
from the same time period?
9. Does this document square with what you know from secondary sources?
10. What evidence do you have for your claims about the text?

Be specific in answering these questions

A further step in the analysis of primary sources is to examine the author’s main
arguments or main point of view.

Understanding the author or writer’s underlying point of view will help you interpret
the context of his writing. It will also help you see why the authors or writers make the
decisions they do.

Most often, people know what they are doing. They plan their actions to achieve
their purpose. If someone selects the purpose of being rich, he will design and carry out
a set of actions, legal or illegal, to gain the desired wealth. In the same manner, writers or
authors have specific purpose to achieve by any piece of work. They are in control of what
they write.

The writers’ or authors’ overall purpose determines the techniques he uses. His
reason for writing particular book, letter, article, document, etc may be manipulative as in
propaganda or advertising or may be straight forward, as in informative writing.

Here are some guide questions in critically analyzing or examining the author’s
main argument and point of view.

1. What is the author’s main objective in writing the article, book, etc?
2. Does the author seek to persuade, convince, to identity problem, to provide a
solution?
3. What are the forms of evidence by the author? Are they effective and for whom?
4. Are important facts in perspectives omitted? What is left out?
5. Is the author credible? – to whom?
6. Does the author consider alternative position and perspectives?
7. Does the author acknowledge prejudice or personal interest? Is there an ox to grind?
8. Are opponents mentioned, either by name or by school or by tradition?

In the process of analyzing a primary source, a history student must closely

examine a single text (for example, a primary document) written by a single author in an
attempt to understand why the writer/author wrote the particular text (a book, or an article)
in a particular way, to a particular audience and for what purpose.

So, the history students have to critically analyze/examine the text (article, book,
etc.) based on these guidelines:

1. What was argued or described by the writer?

2. How did the writer present his argument or point of view?
3. Why did the writer choose (for example, persuasion) as the method of presentation?
4. What evidence or argument that the writer used in (persuading)his audience?
Remember: The audience are not the history students in this subject) but those
person being persuaded and finally;
5. What does the writer ultimately hope to achieve by writing this particular text?

In analyzing a primary source using any of the three (3) ways of critical analysis,
the historical importance of the text or document must be identified and examined. A text
or document with historical significance mean that the text or document is original that
contains important historical information about a person, place or event and thus serve as
primary source.

Significant historical text or document can be deeds, laws, accounts of battle, its
given by a person or groups sharing this viewpoints. These documents or texts have
historical importance and historical interest.

Texts or documents with historical importance or significance, however, do not

describe the daily lives of ordinary people or how society functions. Historians,
anthropologists, and archaeologists generally are more concerned in document that tells
about the day-to-day lives of ordinary people indicating what they ate, their interaction
with other members of their households and social groups, and their states of mind. It is
this information that allows them to try to understand and describe the society was
functioning at any particular time in history.

Many documents of historical importance are produced today, such as personal

letters, pictures, contracts, newspapers, and medical records, would be considered
valuable historical documents in the future. However, most of these will be lost in the
future since they are either printed on ordinary paper which has a limited life span, or even
stored in digital formats, then lost track over time.

Some companies and government entities are attempting to increase the number
of documents that will survive the passage of time, by taking into account the preservation
issues, and either printing documents in a manner that would increase the likelihood of
them surviving indefinitely, or placing selected documents in time capsules or other
special storage environments.

▪ That the degree of significance is a matter of interpretation, often related to the

value systems of the period in which the interpretation was produced.

Related Readings:
1. Commission on Independence, “Filipino Grievances Against Governor Wood
(Zaide, 1990)
2. Emilio Jacinto “Kartilya ng Katipunan” by Richard__, 2013, pp 131-137
3. National Historical Institute (1997). Documents of the 1898 Declaration of Philippine
Independence, The Malolos Constitution and the First Philippine Republic, Manila
pp. 19-23

In identifying the historical importance or value of a text, document or any source,

students may use contextual knowledge to reach substantiated judgments about the
significance of each text or source bearing in mind the following guide.

1. The date of authorship, audience, perspectives and motives of each source.

2. That the source may be significant at the time or have significance attributed to them
subsequently by historians.
3. That the degree of significance is a matter of interpretation, often related to the value
system of the period in which the interpretation was produced.

Hence, the main goal of carefully examining the primary source is to construct new
knowledge or to use the information that the primary source (document for example) to
explore broader historical issues on context.