Source Analysis Paper

Analyze a primary source as “a window onto the past.” What does it tell us about its world? About the people who created or utilized or responded to it? How does your knowledge of its historical context help you understand what it meant in its

original setting?

Getting started

In Assignments, read the instructions and grading rubric for the Source Analysis Paper.

In Lessons > Guides & Reviews, look at the sample papers from previous semesters.

Grading rubric:

Points Rubric

10 Mechanics: grammar, spelling, word count (at least 600 words)

20 Style: organization, clarity, persuasiveness

20 Context

20 Quotation, paraphrase, or description

70

Choose some interesting quotes, details, or features of the source. Discuss their

meaning. What do they show us about how people thought or acted in that day? How does it connect to a particular aspect of

context?

Getting started

In Assignments, read the instructions and grading rubric for the Source Analysis Paper.

In Lessons > Guides & Reviews, look at the sample papers from previous semesters.

Grading rubric:

Points Rubric

10 Mechanics: grammar, spelling, word count (at least 600 words)

20 Style: organization, clarity, persuasiveness

20 Context

20 Quotation, paraphrase, or description

70

Identify the source’s background and surroundings. Who created it? When? Why?

How? What ideas or events or realities shaped its function or meaning in its day?

• Look at the samples in Lessons > Guides & Reviews.

• Find a primary source from the colonial period of US history (up to c. 1780).– What is a primary source?• Something from the time period– It can be textual, like a letter, book, speech, poem, song,

legal record.–Or it can be physical, like a musket, teapot, axe.–Or it could be visual, like a painting, flag, cartoon,

architectural plan.

• Examples:

Getting started

• A letter from an indentured servant to his family in England

• A Puritan sermon

• The Quakers

• Your textbook

• A portrait of a colonial family, painted in 1720

• An internet page about the French & Indian War

YES

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

• Where to find primary sources:

– Lessons > Primary Source Anthology

– Resources > Useful websites for HIST-8 • The best general sites for US history primary sources:

National Humanities Center, Library of Congress, Digital History.

– Lessons > lecture slides

• Choose a source that’s interesting to you.

Getting started

• Do some basic research about the context of your source.

– Basic context: when, where, who, why, how?

– Deeper layers of context: What cultural, political, economic, material etc. situations would have impacted the source’s meaning or function at that time?

– Beware of online “information”

– Take notes as you research and start writing the paper.

Getting started

Getting started (4)

Focus on analyzing the source itself, not on research

• This paper should center on historical criticism, not research. Do not spend too much time researching.

• Look at the details! Engaging with details of diction, style, symbolism, etc. usually produces a rich analysis and helps you get started quickly.

• In this paper you do not need to cite the sources unless you quote something word for word.

Checklist

• Identify your source and its basic context– What is it? Who created it? When? Where? How? Why?

• Historical criticism– Use the source as a window onto the past. What does the

source show us about the way people lived and thought in its day?

– Use your knowledge of the source’s context help you understand what it originally meant.

– This should be the focus of your paper. Do not spend too much time reporting information. Focus on analyzing the source itself.

• Quote, paraphrase, or describe

– Quote economically

• Proofread!

Checklist