National Archives—Written Document Analysis Worksheet
Introduction to College: Reading in College
Overview
In this activity, students are introduced to a worksheet that can be used to analyze a written primary source. The resource includes a written document, and written document analysis worksheet and a tutorial video to help you walk through both the reading of a primary source, annotating the source, and completing the worksheet.
Analyzing Sources in a College Course
One of the most important skill for first-year students is the reading of different texts in higher educations. These can range from textbooks to images. In most classes, instructors the reading and analysis of primar sources.
Primary sources are sources that are written at the time an event occurs and can include:
- public records
- personal papers
- orgainzation records
- newspaper articles
- original research
- original works of literature
- photographs
- art
Nearly every class in college requires you to read som type of primary source to truly understand the discipline you are learning.
For this activity you will complete a primary source analysis using a worksheet created by the National Archives. The example that follows is based on a docment in a United States History course and analyzes a written source. The National Archives offers many different types of worksheets for different historical texts, and these can be adpated to to different types of sources for different disciplines.
Link: National Archives Educator Resources—Document Analysis Worksheets
Resources:
- One of the document analysis worksheets from the National Archives
- This activity used the following worksheet: Written Document Analysis Worksheet
- A primary source
- This activity used the following document: Thomas Newe's "Letter from Carolina", 1682
This source is from The American Yawp Reader CC BY-SA
- This activity used the following document: Thomas Newe's "Letter from Carolina", 1682