How should I go about analysing a primary source?

A source is a first-hand piece of evidence that historians can use to find out about the past. Examples include: eyewitness accounts, letters, diaries, photographs, cartoons, posters etc. It might be helpful to structure your answer in two paragraphs, analysing the source itself in the first section. It is important not to just repeat what the source says, but discuss its significance and provenance. I find it helpful to use the acronym PANDA in order to make this process easier- this stands for: purpose, author, nature, date and audience. By going through these stages of analysis you should be able to explain the message, the usefulness and the limitations of the source. Remember not to take any source at face value, but to question whether the author had a personal bias or agenda when creating it, in order to evaluate the reliability of the source. To put this into practice let’s take The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I. The purpose of this source was to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada and proclaim the imperial majesty of the monarch, we can tell this from the placement of Elizabeth’s hand firmly on the globe and the Imperial crown on her head. The artist is unknown, but was clearly trying to flatter and glorify the queen by emphasising her youthful features and thus focusing more on myth than reality. The nature of the source is an official portrait. The date is c. 1588, the same year as the naval victory. The audience was the elites who made up the royal court and whose loyalty Elizabeth relied upon. Then in your second paragraph, try and connect the source to wider historical issues, using a range of contextual knowledge to support your evaluation. Think about what was going on at this time, and ask yourself how this source is linked. You should conclude your answer by coming to a judgement on how credible the particular source is and making sure you directly answer the question in front of you. Answering these questions quickly gets a lot easier the more practice you do, so don’t worry if you find them challenging at first!