Reading, Understanding, and Evaluating Primary Sources

A. Place the document in its historical context

1. Who wrote it? What do you know about this person?
2. Where and when was it written?
3. Why was it written?
4. Who was it written for? This is called the “audience.” What do you know about this audience?

B. Understand the document

1. What are the key words and what do they mean?
2. What point is the author trying to make? Summarize the thesis.
3. What evidence does the author give to support this thesis.
4. What assumptions does the author make?

C. Evaluate the document as a source of historical information

1. Is this document similar to others from the same time period?
2. How widely was it circulated?
3. What problems, assumptions, and ideas does it share with other documents from the time period?

For more detailed tips for using primary sources, see the section "Make Connections" in Learning Historical Research
by historian William Cronon and his graduate students at

http://www.williamcronon.net/researching/notetaking.htm