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Analyzing Primary Sources: Reading Documents 690 Views


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Description:

In this video learn how to read all of those pesky primary source documents your teacher keeps making you read.


Transcript

00:00

Thank you analyzing primary sources reading documents why do written

00:10

tex make good primary sources when we think of primary

00:15

resources we almost always think of written text first right

00:18

Someone says like oh you know what's a primary document

00:21

he's think oh a diary or a letter someone wrote

00:25

the reason that we think of them first because there's

00:27

a ton of them and that is one of the

00:28

reasons why they make great primary sources because there are

00:32

a lot of them available you're easy to find you

00:34

can search for key words exactly We have access to

00:37

weigh more letters written in the sixteenth century than we

00:40

do say audio files recorded on someone's mp three player

00:44

in the sixteenth century Another reason they're great is because

00:49

they provide a ton of detail Usually when people are

00:51

writing you know they can explain themselves there's not as

00:55

much murkiness you know as opposed to maybe an image

00:58

where no one has said you see this little icon

01:00

here that's what this means when someone's writing they're more

01:03

likely to explain themselves They're also as you mentioned just

01:06

accessible whether something you're reading something on hard copy or

01:10

on the internet the words are still the same But

01:13

if you do get to see a scanned copy of

01:15

something written in a different culture a different time period

01:18

you also get to learn a lot about that language

01:21

How was it written What did their cursive look like

01:23

then How if things changed and evolved there's a ton

01:27

more a ton more reasons But you know britain techs

01:30

are awesome and kind of really easy to digest in

01:32

terms of primary sources What are the limitations of written

01:36

texas primary resource Can't really verify many primary sources but

01:43

the number one reason why why written texts are hard

01:46

to use primary sources is because of this issue of

01:47

bias Whoever's writing them had an opinion So yes that

01:51

person who wrote the diary during the civil war might

01:54

be telling us very cool details and being very explicit

01:58

about things that actually happened to civil war that we

02:00

otherwise we have no idea They also just might be

02:03

making it up way All make stuff our diaries on

02:06

dh Then of course there's the issue that you know

02:08

in united states most people can read and have access

02:11

To the internet and can see these written documents But

02:14

you know not everyone everywhere can read so you know

02:17

having written primary sources doesn't allow people who can't read

02:20

period or who just can't read the language it was

02:22

written and you know if i'm studying you know something

02:25

written that was britain and like aramaic i have no

02:28

idea what it says If i'm looking at a painting

02:31

that was done by someone during that same time here

02:33

in the same culture i might get more out of

02:36

it because i can you know read the images Sure

02:38

i remember with with most pro baseball hall of fame

02:43

guys they actually videotape there signing of the baseballs So

02:48

you have a verification for that That signature on the

02:51

baseball really is whoever it is saying exactly and like

02:55

you know paul the apostle couldn't do that when he

02:57

was wearing exactly why do we consider written texts first

03:04

when looking for primary sources What bonus insight do you

03:08

get from written sources What are the limitations of written

03:11

sources How does literacy and language affect our ability to 00:03:15.675 --> [endTime] use written sources

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