Module 1.

2
Analysis of Selected Primary Sources
Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

 analyze the context, content, and perspective of different kinds of primary sources;
 identify its historical viewpoint of text; and,
 examine the author’s main argument and point of view.

How to Analyze Primary Sources

Primary sources can be analyzed and evaluated by different criteria. These criteria are the content
analysis, contextual analysis, and the author’s main argument or point of view.

Content Analysis is a research method for studying primary sources such as documents and
communication artifacts, which can be texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video. One of the key
advantages of using content analysis to analyze social phenomena is its non-invasive nature, in contrast
to stimulating social experiences or collecting survey answers.

Practices and philosophies of content analysis vary according to the location of the source
communities. They all involve systematic reading or observation of texts or artifacts which are assigned
labels (sometimes called codes) to indicate the presence of interesting, meaningful patterns. After
labeling a large set of media, a social researcher is able to statistically estimate the proportions of
patterns in the text, as well as correlations between patterns.

Nowadays, computers are increasingly used in content analysis to automate the labeling (or coding)
of documents. Simple computational techniques can provide descriptive data such as word frequencies
and document lengths.

According to Klaus Krippendorf, six questions must be addressed in every content analysis:

1. Which data are analyzed?

2. How are the data defined?
3. From what population are the data drawn?
4. What is the most relevant context?
5. What are the boundaries of the analysis?
6. What is to be measured?

The simplest and most objective forms of doing content analysis are the unambiguous
characteristics of the text like word frequencies, the page area taken by a newspaper column, or the
duration of a radio or television program. Analysis of simple word frequencies is limited because the
meaning of a word depends on the surrounding text. The keyword in context routines address this by
placing words in their textual context. This helps resolve ambiguities such as those introduced by
synonyms and homonyms.
 The second way of analyzing primary sources is the contextual analysis or simply called textual
analysis. Understanding the historical context of a primary source is critical for understanding the
attitudes and influences that shaped the creation of the primary source. If not placed into historical
context, a primary source’s true meaning might be misinterpreted.

There are five (5) characteristics to look for when selecting primary sources that the students will be
able to place in historical context:

1. Bibliographic information: Ask these questions: How detailed is the item’s bibliographic record?
Do your students need a primary source with a more descriptive bibliographic record so they can
find more leads for their research project?
2. Creator name and creation/publication date: Are the creator’s name and creation date available
on the primary source or in the bibliographic record? Are you studying point of view and
therefore need to identify the creator of a particular primary source?
3. Time and topic under study in your classroom. What is the time and topic under study in your
classroom? Is the source considered a primary source (created at the time under study) or a
secondary source (accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand
experience)?
4. Contextual Clues: Are these clues within the primary source that will help students place the
primary source into context? Will students identify clothing, shelter or technology from a certain
time period?
5. Extraneous makings or annotations: Will Library of Congress cataloger’s notes or other markings
distract your students and interfere with their ability to place the primary source into historical
context?

Here are some specific questions to ask in analyzing primary sources:

1. What kind of document do you have? Is it a treatise letter? A manuscript, or a printed

document?
2. Was it published? If yes, when and where?
3. Who is the author? What position, role, reputation, status, did the author have at the time of
writing?
4. Is the author well known today or at the time of writing?
5. Who is the intended audience?
6. Who read this text at the time? What are the responses of those who read it?
7. What was to be gained and what were the risks in writing this text?
8. How is this document related to other primary documents known to you, particularly form the
same time period?
9. Does this document square with what you know form secondary sources?
10. What evidence do you have for your claim about the next?

Be specific in answering these questions. A further step in the analysis of primary sources is to
examine the author’s main argument or main point of view.
 Understanding the author of or writer’s underlying point of view will help you interpret the context
of his writing. It will also help you see why the author’s or writers make the decisions they do.

Most often, people know what they are doing. They plan their actions to achieve their purpose. If
someone selects the purpose of being rich, he will design and carry out a set of actions, legal or illegal,
to gain the desired wealth. In the same manner, writers or authors have specific purpose to achieve by
any piece of work. They are in control of what they write.

The writer or author’s overall purpose determines the techniques he uses. His reason for writing a
particular book, letter, article, document, etc. may be manipulative as in propaganda, or advertising or
may be straightforward, as in informative writing.

Here are some guide questions in critically analyzing or examining the author’s main argument and
point of view.

1. What is the author’s main objective in writing the article, book, etc.?
2. Does the author seek to persuade, convince, to identify problem, or to provide a solution?
3. What are the forms of evidence used by the author? Are they effective and for whom?
4. Are important facts or perspective omitted? What is left out/
5. Is the author credible-to whom?
6. Does the author consider alternative position and perspective>
7. Does the author acknowledge prejudices or personal interest? Is there an ax to grind?
8. Are opponents mentioned either by name or by school or by tradition?

In the process of analyzing a primary source, a history student must closely examine a single text
(for example, a primary document) written by a single author in an attempt to understand why the
writer/author wrote the particular text (a book, or an article) in a particular way, to a particular audience
and for what purpose?

So, the history student must critically analyze/examine the text (article, book, etc.) based on these
guidelines.

1. What was argued or described by the writer?

2. How did the writer present his argument or point of view?
3. Why did the writer choose (for example, persuasion) as the method of presentation?
4. What evidences or arguments that the writer used in (persuading) his audience.
Remember: the audience are not the history students in this subject) but those people being
persuaded; and finally,
5. What does the writer ultimately hope to achieve by writing this particular text?

In analyzing a primary source using any of the three (3) ways of critical analysis, the historical
importance of the text or document must be identified and examined. A text or document with
historical significance means that the text or document is origin that contains important and of
historical information about a person, place, or event and thus, serve as primary source.
 Significant historical text document can be deeds, laws, accounts of battles, etc. given by a person or
groups sharing their viewpoints. These documents or text have historical importance and of historical
interest.

Texts or documents with historical importance or significance, however, do not describe the daily
lives of ordinary people or how society functions. Historians, anthropologists, and archeologists are
generally more concerned in document that tells about the day-to-day lives of ordinary people
indicating what they ate, their reaction with other members of their households and social groups, and
their state of mind.

Many documents of historical importance produced today, such as personal letters, pictures,
contracts, newspaper, and medical records, would be considered valuable historical documents that will
survive the passage of time, by taking into account the preservation issues and either printing
documents in a manner that would increase the likelihood of them surviving indefinitely, or placing
selected documents in time capsules or other special storage environments that the degree of
significance is a matter of interpretation, often related to the value system of the period in which the
interpretation was produced.

Hence, the main goal of carefully examining the primary source is to construct new knowledge or to
use the information that the primary source (documents sample) to explore broader historical issues or
context.

Distinction Between Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources – are direct firsthand evidences regarding an object, person, or work of art. They
include historical and legal documents, eyewitness, accounts, results, experiments, statistical data,
pieces of creative writing, audio, video recordings, speeches, and art objects. They also include
interviews, surveys, fieldworks, and Internet communications via email, blogs, listservs, and
newsgroups. In the most natural and social sciences, primary sources are often empirical studies –
research where experiment was performed or a direct observation was done. The results of such
empirical studies are found in some scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences.

Secondary sources on the other hand describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze,
evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. Secondary source materials are those that can be
found in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles written in scholarly
journals that discuss or evaluate someone else’s original research.

A comparative analysis of primary and secondary sources in a table format is shown.

Primary sources are the raw materials of Secondary sources are analysis or a
historical research – they are the documents restatement of primary sources. They often
or artifacts closest to the topic or describe or explain primary sources. Some
 investigation. Often, they are created during secondary sources not only analyze primary
the time period which is being studied sources, but also use them to argue or
(correspondence, diaries, newspapers, persuade the reader to hold a certain
government documents, art) but they can opinion. Secondary sources are not evidence,
also be produced later by eyewitnesses or but a commentary on and discussion of
participants (memoirs, oral histories). You evidence.
may find primary sources in their original
format (usually in archive) or reproduced in a Examples include:
variety of ways: books, microfilm, digital, etc.)
Bibliographies
Examples include:
Artifacts (e.g., coins, plant specimen, fossils, Biographical works
furniture, tools, clothing, all from the time
under study) Commentaries, criticisms
Audio recordings (e.g., radio programs, oral
histories) Dictionaries, Encyclopedias
Diaries
Internet communications on email, Histories
Interviews (e.g., oral histories, telephone, e-
mail) Journal articles
Journal articles published in peer-reviewed
publications Magazines and newspaper articles
Letters
Newspaper articles written at the time Monographs, other than fiction and
Original Documents (i.e., birth certificates, autobiography
will, marriage license, trial transcript)
Patents Textbooks
Photographs
Proceedings of Meetings, conferences and Websites
symposia
Records of organizations, government
agencies (e.g., annual report, treaty,
constitution, government document)
Speeches
Survey Research (e.g., market surveys, public
opinion polls)
Video recording (e.g., television programs)
Work of art, architecture, literature, and
music (e.g., paintings, sculptures, musical
scores, buildings, novels, poems, websites)
Source: Steven Profit, Oct 4, 2017 (internet)

The Difference Between Internal and External Criticisms

With respect to internal criticisms, these seek to falsify or demonstrate its discontinuity with an
idea by hypothetically assuming its truth in order to prove some internal inconsistency or
contradiction with it. External criticisms, in contrast, seek to falsify an idea without hypothetically
assuming its truth.

Dr. Lynn Sims, a history professor at John Tyler Community College noted two ways of applying a
set of data. According to her, internal criticism looks within the data itself to try to determine truth –
facts and “reasonable” interpretation. It includes looking at the apparent or possible motives of the
person providing the data whereas, external criticism applies “ science to a document”. It involves
such physical and technical tests as dating of paper a document is written on, but it also involves a
knowledge of when certain things existed or where possible, e.g., when zip codes where invented.
External criticism and the application of both forms of critique often require research. Part of
research can be oral history.

Understanding the difference between an internal and external criticism is of vital importance for
all people since falling to do this may lead in to unfocused conversations where topic of investigation
is never sufficiently addressed due to the ever-elusive objective. It is important therefore to focus
the conversation by identifying what type of objection you have or else are confronted with and, as a
result, you will be in better position for having more fruitful conversations with those whom you may
disagree with.

Repositories of Primary Sources

The main task of preserving and making the primary source of information on Philippine history
accessible to the public lies on the National Archives of the Philippines. The documents, records, and
other primary sources are basic components of cultural heritage and collective memory – the
embodiment of community identities as well as testaments to shared national experiences.
Presently, it is the home of about 60 miliion documents from the centuries of Spanish rule in the
Philippines, the American and Japanese occupations, as well as the years of the Republic.

The Archiver is created by Republic Act 9470 on May 21, 2017. This new law strengthened the
record-keeping systems and administration program for archival materials as it is the final repository
for the voluminous notarized documents in the country.

Other local repositories of primary sources could be found in museums of provinces, cities, and
municipalities in the locality.

For Republic Acts and other legislative enactments or statutes, the repositories are the Official
Gazette published by the National Printing Office.

For Supreme Court decisions, the repositories of the SC decisions are the Philippine Reports,
citation of books, treatises, pleadings and even court decisions are found in the Supreme Court
Reports Annotated (SCRA).

The Difference Between Internal and External Criticisms

 With respect to internal criticisms, these seek to falsify or demonstrate its discontinuity with an
idea by hypothetically assuming its truth in order to prove some internal inconsistency or
contradiction with it. External criticisms, in contrast, seek to falsify an idea without hypothetically
assuming its truth.

Dr. Lynn Sims, a history professor at John Tyler Community College noted two ways of applying a
set of data. According to her, internal criticism looks within the data itself to try to determine truth –
facts and “reasonable” interpretation. It includes looking at the apparent or possible motives of the
person providing the data whereas, external criticism applies “ science to a document”. It involves
such physical and technical tests as dating of paper a document is written on, but it also involves a
knowledge of when certain things existed or where possible, e.g., when zip codes where invented.
External criticism and the application of both forms of critique often require research. Part of
research can be oral history.

Understanding the difference between an internal and external criticism is of vital importance for
all people since falling to do this may lead in to unfocused conversations where topic of investigation
is never sufficiently addressed due to the ever-elusive objective. It is important therefore to focus
the conversation by identifying what type of objection you have or else are confronted with and, as a
result, you will be in better position for having more fruitful conversations with those whom you may
disagree with.

Kinds of Sources
Primary and Secondary Sources
There are two general kinds of historical sources: primary and
secondary. Primary Sources refer to documents, physical objects, and
oral/video accounts made by an individual or a group present at the time
and place being described. These materials provide facts from people
who actually witnessed the event. Secondary sources, on the other
hand, are materials made by people long after the events being described
had taken place.
Most historical narratives today are so reliant on documentary
sources due to the plethora of written records and the lack of
archaeological records and oral/video memoirs. Although having several
documents about an event allows for easier counterchecking of facts
history researchers are confronted with one basic challenge with regard
primary sources- their ability to read and understand texts in foreign
languages.
Many of our untapped archival documents here and abroad are
written in Spanish. A good knowledge of Spanish is a huge advantage.
But this skill is unusual among today’s historians who prefer to read
translations of Spanish texts such as the 55-volume. The Philippine
Islands, 1493- 1898 (1903-1909) edited by Emma Blair and James
Robertson, which is the most cited collection of primary sources about
the Philippines before the advent of the American colonial regime. The
collection includes translations of portions of 16th- century chronicles
such as Antonio Pigafetta’s Primo Viaggio intorno al mundo (1524),
Miguel Loarca’s Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas (1582), and Juan de
Plasencia’s Relacion de las Islas Pilipinas (1592).
Filipino historians, such as the father-daughter tandem of
Gregorio Zaide and Sonio Zaide, have also compiled and translated
colonial documents. They published the 10- volume Documentary
Sources of Philippine History (1994).
Aside from reading the Spanish originals documents or
translated words, another daunting task for Filipino historians is to
discern the cultural context and historical value of primary sources
because most of these primary documents were written by colonialists
and reflected Western cultural frames. For examples, derogatory terms
used to Label Filipinos such as “pagan,” “uncivilized,” “wild,” and
“savage” abound in these colonial documents. Uncovering myths and
misconceptions about Filipino cultural identity propagated by the
Spanish and American colonizers is extra challenging for contemporary
Filipino scholars.
If the key function of primary source documents is to give facts,
secondary source documents, on the other hand, provide valuable
interpretations of historical events. The works of eminent historians
such as Teodoro Agoncillo and Renato Constantino are good examples
of secondary sources. In his interpretation of the Philippine Revolution,
Agoncillo divided the revolution into two phases: the first phase covers
the years from the start of the revolution in August 1896 to the flight of
Emilio Aguinaldo and company to Hong Kong as a result of the Pact of
Biak-na-Bato, while the second phase spans from Aguinaldo’s return to
Manila from Hong Kong until his surrender to the Americans in March
1901.
However, Constantino refuted Agoncillo’s leader-centric scheme
of dividing the revolution into two phases by stressing that Agoncillo’s
viewpoint implied that the revolution came to a halt when Aguinaldo
left the country. Constantino disputed the soundness of Agoncillo’s two-
phase scheme by asserting that the war of independence continued even
without Aguinaldo’s presence in the country.
Aside from the issue on the Philippine Revolution, there are
other contending issues in Philippine history such as the venue of the
first Christian mass in the country and the question of who deserves to
be named a national hero. By and large, interpretations serve as tools of
discernment for readers of historical sources, but they should be
cautious of frames of analysis used for biased, discriminatory, and self-
serving ends.