PRIMARY SOURCE ANALYSIS 8 STAGE FRAMEWORK

STAGE 1
FRAMING THE INQUIRY

Establishing historical significance
Contextualising the time period and phenomena
Developing research questions

STAGES 2 & 3
SOURCE ONE & TWO ANALYSIS

Source analysis, historical language and moving beyond bias.

a. Initial reading

b. Identification &
attribution
(VanSledright, 2004)

c. Decoding &
defining historical
language

d. Judging perspective
& reliability
assessment
(VanSledright, 2004)

STAGE 4
EVALUATING THE EVIDENCE WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Using inference and historical imagination.
What evidence is provided?
What answers does the evidence provide to our questions?

STAGE 5
REFINING THE INQUIRY

Do questions need tweaking based on evidence thus far?
Are questions answerable or too broad/narrow?
Do we have new questions based on new understandings?

STAGE 6
CORROBORATING FURTHER

What evidence is limited thus far and requiring corroboration?
Other primary sources?
More sources from the same authors?
Repeat Stages2 & 3, as necessary.

More sources from

same authors?

Other primary
sources

NO

YES

Evaluate change &

continuity in their
personal
narrative/perspective

CORROBORATE
AGAINST

Other primary
sources

STAGE 7
HISTORIOGRAPHY

Compare with secondary sources - do they help to shed light on evidence?
Provide wider range of context/source analysis.

STAGE 8
CREATING AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Answering the question
new private understandings (Husbands, 2013, p. 26).