Below are the basic questions that you should put to any source that you intend to use in your research in order to grasp it with critical insight. Although the questions below are cast in a form more readily applicable to written sources, they can easily be adapted for a critical understanding of material culture and artistic productions. This list of questions is not exhaustive; rather, it is intended as an heuristic tool for generating additional insights into your sources. If you work through this list of questions, you will more likely be able to generate critical observations about your source.
Who?
Who is the author? Does the author stand in an intellectual/artistic tradition? What is the historical formation of the author?
Where?
Where was the document produced? What are the effects of local social and cultural influences upon it? How does the language of the document affect its reception by different audiences?
When?
When was the document produced? What historical currents inform its production? How has it been shaped by the history that it presupposes? To what extent is the document a product of its time, ahead of its time, or rooted in past tradition?
What?
What is the author’s thesis? How is this thesis informed by who wrote it, where it was written, and when it was written? What is the basic point of the document?
To whom?
All documents have audiences, whether real or imagined.
Who is the audience to whom the document is directed? How does the orientation of the document to a particular audience inform what it has to say? To what extent has the document been tailored to a particular audience? Is the message of the document intelligible or valid for those outside this audience? Is it meant to be?
How?
What are the components of the author’s thesis? How has he/she organized these components? Is there a discernible structure to the document? If so, how does this structure contribute to conveying the author’s message?
Quibus auxiliis? (“With what aids?”)
From which sources has the author assembled his/her material? What methodological tools has he/she employed to investigate these sources? Are there other authors to whom the author of your document is “deeply indebted” for their assistance? If so, how has their influence contributed to the production of the document?
Why?
This is the question we are all most interested in, but which must come last! If you have successfully answered all or most of the above questions to the extent made possible by the evidence to hand, this question becomes much easier to answer.
Why did the author feel that his/her production was required, demanded, or desired? Why produce a document in the first place?