Evaluate Potential Primary Sources

Test the viability of a primary source for research

Once you have a short list of potential primary sources, you should analyze them for research viability. Not every "interesting" primary source will lend itself easily to the type of paper you are writing for Humanities Core. Ask yourself:

Is there enough going on with this primary source for you to continue researching it for a quarter?
Can you identify paths for further research?
What kind of humanistic method do you think you might use to analyze your primary source (e.g. rhetorical analysis, visual analysis, psychoanalysis, etc.)?

HumCore_PrimarySourceWorkshop2024.pdf

Winter Quarter Workshop Materials

You can review materials from the Primary Source workshop in the library during winter quarter to help remember the process of evaluating and analyzing primary sources:

Observe

Really look closely, and refrain from making value judgements. Try to spend time observing and describing your item. Ask questions like this:

Authorship: Who created it or published it?
Historical Context: When was it created? Where was it created?
Audience: Who is this for? How is that evident?
Circulation: How was this disseminated? Is this reproduced for a mass audience? What technologies were involved in the item's dissemination?
Materiality and style: What is it? What is the form, format, genre, material? What is the size? If there is language or text, describe the language used
Close reading/looking: This can involve rhetorical analysis, visual analysis, or, especially if working with film or video games, analysis of things like lighting, sound, composition, cuts, etc.

Movie poster of Dune, a film by Denis Villeneuve (2021)

Cover art of Maus, a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman

Cover of Maus, a serialized graphic novel by Art Spiegelman (1980-1991)

Contextualize

Identify what you don’t know and look it up. Your probably can't answer all of the questions in the "Observation" section without researching some more context. Google things. Ask questions like this:

- Who is the author/creator and who published it? Did they create other things? How does this object fit in with their entire body of work?
- What was happening during the time period that your item was created?
- What do you know about the format or medium of this primary source? Is this primary source typical or atypical for this medium?
- Who was the intended audience, and what do you know about them?
- What kind of technology was available at the time this primary source existed?

Possible context questions for Maus: Who is Art Spiegelman? Where was this published? In what format? When was it published? How was it received? Who was the intended audience (as a comic book)? How have scholars talked about Maus?

You may also need to survey the landscape of secondary sources. You do not need to do a thorough search at this point in your research. However, surveying the landscape can help you understand existing conversations and lines of inquiry that may already be happening about your primary source.

Tools you might use at this stage:

Basic web search (e.g. Google)
Readings from Humanities Core or other courses
Resources from the Humanities Core Research Guide:
- Encyclopedias and/or other context and reference sources
- Broad-coverage databases like Library Search, JSTOR, or Google Scholar

Do you think there will be a scholarly conversation about issues or subtopics that you've uncovered in your observation and contextualization?

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