Below I will provide three links to primary sources. Please choose ONE source to analyze.
1. http://www.dankalia.com/literature/prn347/172.html
2. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ISA+45&version=NIV
3. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=IS+56&version=NIV
Below is NOT a primary source but can be used if information is needed for essay. Please cite if using.
1. https://www.theosophical.org/publications/1231
PLEASE DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES!!
Start by reading or viewing the primary source you chose and beginning the analysis of its meaning by making notes on your answers to the questions below:
What kind of primary source is it?
Who is the author or creator (if known)?
Can you tell why was it written or created?
Can you tell who the intended audience was?
What is the primary source’s tone? What words and phrases (and/or scenes and visual perspectives) convey it?
What are the author’s or creator’s values and assumptions? Is there visible bias?
What information does it relate? Did the author or creator have first-hand knowledge of the subject or did s/he report what others saw and heard?
What issues does it address?
What is your overall assessment of the primary source and its usefulness/significance for the historical study of your topic?
Note that some questions may not be answerable, some may be relatively unimportant, and others will be central to your analysis. It all depends on the document and the kind of analysis you wish to make.
Once you have begun analyzing the primary source by answering the questions above, use your answers to those questions to help determine how to interpret the primary source. Your task is not to argue with or endorse its ideas. Try to maintain an impartial tone. To complete the assignment successfully you need to read the source carefully and analyze its contents.
Start your essay with an explanation of the task before you. Tell the reader what kind of source it is (image, legal code, literary text, travelogue, memoir, architecture, etc.). Express its stated or implied thesis or main point and try to surmise from clues in the text (tone, topics, values, etc.) the sources purpose. Provide a historical context for the document. Your goal is to present an accurate and concise sketch that places the primary source in its historical context and gives an appropriate factual and thematic background to the specific points you will discuss in the next part of the essay.
Analyze the values and assumptions the source contains. You will have to make some inferences from the source since values and assumptions are more often hidden and implicit rather than open and explicit. They are the unspoken foundations on which a source rests, and they often give it its meaning. Be sure to present those pieces of evidence upon which you make your assessment.
For the formatting of the essay and all citations, historians are obliged to follow the Chicago Manual of Style format. You may use either humanities or author-date citation styles but use only one of these styles in your work.
The author-date citation style is very close to MLA and APA styles. A modified MLA or APA format that provides page numbers may be allowed.
