Description
1/2° SOURCE ANALYSIS TEMPLATE
PART ONE: Choose the appropriate analysis form to use for your primary source. Fill out the form. Be sure to include a copy of the source or a link to it.
PART TWO: For Part Two, connect the primary source you found with one of the assigned readings for the week and explain how the source illuminates the information in the reading. For instance, if you are writing about Gilded Age politics, you might find a Thomas Nast cartoon and discuss the ways the cartoon shows an understanding of the political corruption happening at the time. Analyzing the cartoon helps us understand what Americans understood and thought about the politics of the moment. The following is the suggested format for Part Two.
Gilmore, Glenda. “Responding to the Challenges of the Progressive Era,” in Who Were theProgressives? edited by Glenda Gilmore, 3-17. New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2002.
Discussion of Reading (1- to 2-pages, typed, double-spaced:
▪ Identify the primary source you will be using. Provide a Chicago Manual of Style citation
in a footnote for the primary source.
▪ Explain how it connects to the secondary source reading.
–What does examining both sources tell us about America in that moment?
–How does the primary source illustrate/illuminate information in the secondary
source?
How does the secondary source help you understand the primary source,
▪ –Improve your understanding of it and what was happening at that moment?
▪ How do you understand the reading/source differently after analyzing them
together?
Submit your completed form, a copy of the primary source (or a link in the form), and your analysis of the sources as one document, using Microsoft Word, .pdf, or .rtf format.
your source should be from the same time period as the reading
you choose to analyze.
Content –
Be sure to discuss both sources, and to explain/connect them. Your choice of what primary source matters. (See the next point.)
Be sure to choose a primary source that connects more than superficially to your chosen reading. I will be evaluating this more strictly in the future.
Your source should be from the same time period as the reading. I did not take off for this unless the analysis was poorly done.
Photographs and images can be tricky sources.
Do the images illuminate tensions, ideologies, world understanding and organization, power of the moment? Or do they simply provide visual illustrations?
Please note, you should be trying to find different kinds of sources. Posters, songs, recorded speeches, interviews. This is an opportunity to work with many different kinds of sources. It would be smart to use these assignments as a way to figure out what kind of sources you will use for your project & how to analyze them.”
Organization/Writing –
too many of the primary sources came from art collections or had unclear provenance. * The next point addresses how to fix this.
You should provide either a bib or footnote citation – use the Chicago Manual of Style format – for each source you use. I am now going to require more than just a copy of your primary source, but a link to where you found it as well. PLEASE check your links. I spent a lot of time trying to find sources. If you need to cite ideas or words from your sources in your analysis, please use footnotes.
General writing rule: your analysis should be more than one long paragraph. Good writing uses paragraphs to break up the discussion/analysis into smaller, more manageable chunks. Each paragraph should present one idea that has primary and/or secondary evidence. None of us have the skills of William Faulkner (look it up). I will not give feedback on this in the future, but I will deduct points when it happens.
Both sources should be clearly identified in your analysis. I would prefer you use the template to organize your material, but your analysis should include titles of what you will be discussing
Typos – too many, or too careless (author name completely wrong) – make you look bad. I consider random capitalization in this category as well.
