DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

READING PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS & PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION

You will read (and remember) better if you print out and mark the document as required. Read it through as best you can, even if you don't understand everything. Think about what you CAN learn form it. Think about how the document relates to what we are learning. Look up words that you don’t know. MARK things that you think are main ideas (or seem important but confuse you). In class, talk about the items you marked. Doing this will help you later, too, as you prepare for essays and tests. It will help you remember it if you write down one or two main points, too.

 

Basic Questions to Ask Yourself about the Document:

1. WHO wrote it?

What is the author's name? Was he or she part of a minority of some kind? What was the author's job or social role and position?

 

2. WHEN and WHERE was it written?

What is the context? How might where and when it was written affect what and why the author writes?

 

3. WHAT is it?

Is it a law? A letter? A diary/memoire? A newspaper article? Is it a political treatise, that is, an explanation of a political ideology (a united set of political ideas). Is it a critique or does it support what it discusses?

 

4. FOR WHOM does the author write?

Is there a target audience? Who might be reading it?

 

5. WHO CARES?

Why does this document matter? Why are we reading this? What can it teach us? How can we use it to understand the period? Does it suggest a new idea or critique? How did people "receive" it and what was its impact? Was it popular? Did it challenge existing beliefs or governments? Is it relevant today?

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.