How do I effectively analyse a primary source?

When faced with a new primary source to analyse there are four key steps that you can follow to ensure that you are achieving an effective depth of analysis. Firstly, you need to contextualise the source, using the 3 W's to help you: Where does the source come from? When was the source produced? and What major events were occurring at the time of its production? Putting the source into context will allow you to fully understand why certain features of the source exist. Next, you need to summarise the source, perhaps summarising each paragraph in one sentence. This is particularly effective with primary sources that use difficult language such as William of Jumièges description of William the Conquerors invasion of England, because they have been translated from Latin or other old languages. This step allows you to understand what the source is telling you by rephrasing it in a way that you understand so that you can better analyse it. The third step is to pick out any biases that the source may have which can impact its reliability. This could be biases that the person who produced the source had or even a bias in the text itself as a result of censorship (as an example). Many biases are directly linked to when and where the source was produced which is why the first step of contextualising the source is so important. The final step of analysis of a primary source involves making inferences of what we can learn from the source (taking into consideration what you have learnt about the source through the other 3 steps). During this step it is important to remember that what the text may plainly say or show is not the same as what it tells us, often you need to read in between the lines to pick up on key inferences that you can make. These inferences will tell you a lot about a certain period of history and are a key reason why primary sources are so important in the study of history. These steps are flexible and applicable to any era of history and any type of primary source (paintings, letters etc.) and following them will allow you to develop and refine your analytical skills.