Document analysis

Name: Date: CRN:

Document Analysis Worksheet

(Adapted from a document created by the Education Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408).

In order to earn all points, you must turn in these assignments on the due date, AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS, and you must give MEANINGFUL answers to ALL questions. Don’t turn in any analyses after class has already started. Just wait and turn them in the next day of class.

1. Who is the author (or creator) of this document?

Make sure you look up who wrote the document in the first place, not who edited or published the document. 2. What is the title of this document?

That would be the FULL title you find in the book, not necessarily the short title in the syllabus. 3. What type of document is this? (example: poem, personal letter, government report, newspaper article,

diary, academic journal, patent, memorandum, map, telegram, press release, advertisement, congressional record, census report).

Make sure you look this up. 4. Is this a primary source or a secondary source?

This website explains the difference. 5. Who is the audience or intended recipient of the document?

You will need to figure this out. If this is a speech delivered before the floor of Congress, then the audience is the members of Congress; if this is an academic article, then the audience is academics; if this is a newspaper article, then the audience is the general public; if this is a speech by the President of the United States broadcasted through radio, television, or internet, then the audience is the American people; if this is an excerpt from a bestseller book, then the audience is the general public, etc.

6. Why do you think this document was written?

You will have to reflect on this. Write in your own words 7. List three things the author said that you think are important.

You will have to reflect on this. Write in your own words. Make sure you actually LIST your answer, as in 1) ____ , 2) ____, 3) ____.

8. What evidence in the document helps you know why it was written? Quote from the document.

This is where you actually QUOTE from the document. Make sure to place your quote in quotation marks and give a page number for reference.

9. List two things the document tells you about life in the United States at the time the document was written (if a

primary source) or the time described in the document (if a secondary source). You will have to reflect on this. Write in your own words. Make sure you actually LIST your answer, as in 1) ____, 2) ____.

10. Write a question to the author that is left unanswered by the document.

You will have to reflect on this. Write in your own words. Make sure you come up with a MEANINGFUL question. Don’t write anything like, “I can’t think of one”. That’s not an answer.