Pepys, Samuel, Diary (Sections on the Great Fire, The Plague) available at http://www.pepys.info/fire.html

Analyzing Primary Sources
Definition: Primary Sources are works that were written or created at a time that is contemporary or very nearly contemporary with the period or subject being studied. They are generally produced by participants, or direct observers of the events the historian is studying. They provide firsthand evidence of historical events. They are essential to the study, interpretation and writing of history. Thus learning how to read and evaluate such sources is essential to success in this course and in writing historical essays. Analyzing primary source material requires that you develop the ability to ask sound questions, exercise a judicious skepticism about whatever ?facts? you mine from the record, and that you also use your historical imagination to construct possible answers that may be latent rather than explicit in the document.
Time & Place Rule ? ?the closer in time and place a source and its creator were to an event in the past, the richer the source will be? which means a good primary source has:
? Direct connection to the event in the past;
? Eyewitness accounts of the event by participants and observers;
? Eyewitness accounts of the event, created afterwards, by participants and observers;
? Accounts of the event, created afterwards, by people who used interviews or evidence from the past event.
Bias Rule ? ?every source is biased in one way or another? which means three things:
? Sources must be critically and skeptically reviewed;
? Nothing should be taken at face value;
? Sources must be cross-checked and compared to other sources of evidence.

A primary source can be almost anything, depending on the subject and purpose of your research. Examples of primary sources:

Archives records — (minutes of meetings, purchase invoices, financial statements, etc.) of an organization, institution (The University of Alaska Anchorage), business, or other group entity. (Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau; Mayor?s Office)
Artifacts — manufactured items such as clothing, furniture, tools, buildings.
Autobiographies and memoirs
Books ? extensive and detailed discussions of a particular topic or set of topics, written by the scholars and researchers who came up with the ideas or discovered the findings.
Conference proceedings ? Scholars and researchers getting together and presenting their latest ideas and findings.
Government data and documents ? census statistics, economic data, court reports, etc.
Historical documents ? official papers, maps, treaties, etc.
Internet/electronic communications on email, list-servers, and newsgroups.
Interviews and speeches
Journal articles ? brief, specific analyses of particular aspects of a topic, written by the scholars and researchers who came up with the ideas or discovered the findings.
Manuscript collections ? collected writings, notes, letters, diaries, and other unpublished works.
Newspaper advertisements
Newspaper or magazine articles written AT THE TIME of an event, stories on a breaking issue, or journalists reporting the results of their investigations.
Original reports and research (results of experiments, survey research, fieldwork, lab reports, experiments, observations, etc.)
Patents
Recordings ? audio, video, photographs
Statistics and other tabulated data which has not been interpreted
Web/Internet ? Web sites that publish the author?s findings or research, e.g. your professor?s home page listing research results. Note: use extreme caution when using the Internet as a primary source. Remember, on the Internet, a page citing authoritative findings could have been published by anyone in the world.
Works of art or literature (poems, short stories, paintings, etc.)

Analyzing A Primary Source
Questions To Ask

-1-Document/Source
-2- Point of View
-3- Context
Task: Discover the literal aspects of the document.
Questions
Who wrote the document?
What is the setting (time and place)?
What are the author?s qualifications, background, expertise, or authority?
Did the author have first hand knowledge of the event? Or, did the author report what others saw and heard?
Was the information recorded during the event, immediately after the event, or after some lapse of time?
What type of document is this (diary, government document, memoir)?
What is the subject?
Task: Determine the point of view of the source.
Questions

What is the author?s:
social position?
religion, sex, and culture, class?
Intent, stated or implicit?
perspective or point of view?

educational or professional training?
What basic assumptions are implicit in the document?
Is the author trying to be neutral or is the recorder evidently biased? In what ways?
What textual clues-e.g. ?loaded words?, are used (clues to bias)?
What is omitted? Why are the omissions, if any significant? Task: Understanding how the context of the source affected its creation and content.

Questions
Who is the intended audience?
What other events surrounded the source?
What was cultural context of the time in which the document was written?
How might that context have affected the content of the source?
What we should consider to achieve historical empathy:

? To understand the event/person in context
? To understand that the past is different from the present
? To question how much agency or power the historical figure had to act
? To appreciate the eventual outcome of the situation was unknown to people at the time