Primary Source Analysis
In analyzing your chosen source, you may want to ask the following questions of it:
1. What kind of source is it, i.e. poster, film, letter, etc.? What, if anything, does the
form of the source tell you?
2. What do you know about the author, i.e. gender, class, nationality, occupation,
religion,age, or political beliefs? How might this influence his or her opinions
and/or perspective?
3. What is the author’s message or argument? What is he or she implying? Why?
4. What kinds of rhetorical strategies (language choice, metaphors, symbols, etc.)
does the author use?
5. Who was the source’s intended audience?
6. What doesn’t the source talk about? Why not? What might those silences say?
7. What kinds of historical questions can you answer using this source?
8. How does your interpretation challenge or support other historians’ ideas about
the time period, about the phenomenon in question, etc