There are two purposes for this

assignment. First, it will improve your critical thinking skills. Second, it will provide you with the experience of being a historian. Both align with the learning outcomes for this class. Primary sources are the tools of history.

Interpreting them is what we, as students of history–that is historians–do. Unfamiliar with the term primary

source. That’s understandable! It’s a term historians use to talk about sources from the time (primary), sources

by historians, usually written at a later time period (secondary), and in textbooks and encyclopedias (tertiary).

This assignment puts you in the role of the historian, rather than learning the history from an historian’s

interpretation (secondary or tertiary). Here’s a video to help clarify the differences between the types of

sources.(A take away from this course is some experience in historical analysis). Note that primary sources are

often referred to as “documents.” That is how the primary sources are identified in the the Women and Social

Movements database.

A primary source analysis (PSA) has four components, described below. After reading the primary source and

discussing it in the forum with your peers, create brief answers to the following questions. Note, you may

choose a primary source from any week up to and including the week the PSA is due. Do a different primary

source for the second PSA.

1.What is the primary source? Who is speaking/painting/drawing/writing? When and where is it from? What

are some distinguishing features of the primary source? Help us ‘see’ itt. Be specific. (Describe/Identify!)

2. What is the topic and overall content of the primary source? (Provide a general description.) What is this

primary source about? What does it ‘say’? (Summarize!)

3. What is the theme of the primary source? Its point? To answer this question, consider the following: Does

it put forth a unique point of view? Does it contain an argument for or against something? If it’s a transcript of

a conversation, what is the consensus? If it is a letter what does it show about American women at that time?

What are the opposing views expressed? Here you want to pay attention not just to what the primary source is

about (as in question 2) but what the primary source’s writers, speakers, or producers were attempting to

accomplish. Here is your chance to be a skeptic, to think about the reliability, the objectivity of the author(s) of

an artifact of history. To make an informed assessment you will read other assigned primary sources and

articles and watch the weekly lecture video and apply them in your assessment. (Assess!)

4. What is the historical significance (to US Women’s History) of the primary source? What does it help us to

understand about a particular event, person, group, or time/era? Here it will help you to think a bit about what

US women’s history events or developments or concepts led to the creation of this document or what events or

developments this primary sourcet set in motion or what it teaches us about its time (with regard to women’s

rights, experiences and or gender roles). The other readings and the video lecture are helpful here. The result

should be specific to the primary source primary sourceand its context and time period. Take care not to

include a ‘cheerleader’ significance that could be said about many primary sources such as ‘trail

blazing’ or “first woman to”(which is actually often not true). Stay away from ‘inspiration’ and ‘hero’

too as these are all often substitutes for analysis (not intentionally, but they make us feel we’ve done

the historical analysis when we haven’t).. (Analyze!)

This guide is your “instruction sheet” for writing the Primary Source Analysis assignments. Questions in earlier

discussion forums have helped you prepare for this assignment. Thinking about the primary sources we read

this way will also help you learn to focus on what is important (not getting lost in a sea of words and facts) as

you read on your own.

Remember, the four components are:

1.Description: Identify & Describe

2. Topic/Content–Summarize.

3. Theme/Argument/Viewpoint–Assess

4. Historical Significance/Importance–Analyze

You may wish to outline or create headlngs from the nouns listed above. Then use the verbs (describe,

summarize, assess, and analyze), as a self check tool: have you done each?

Do not number the sections of your assignment. Instead, dive into a discussion of the primary source that

discusses the four components but does so in a brief essay format (1-2 pages). Use full sentences. For 1 be

sure to provide a rich description of the primary source. Don’t just repeat the title. Assume an audience that

knows something about the time period, but little about the specific primary source. Use brief quotes to back up

your interpretations for 2 and 3. Be sure to identify clearly the primary source you are analyzing. You won’t

need more than four paragraphs and if you are concise, may get the job done in 3. And, remember to analyze

(4).

A rubric is also available.

Students who wish to consider historical connections with some background reading in US Women’s history

may read relevant chapters in Susan Ware’s American Women’s History: A Short Introduction.

Here is the National Archives page on “document” or ‘primary source’ analysis.