Analysis of Primary documents/sources.

[Artimi]

First of all I am so glad I am member here.

 

My neice is in first year university and in one of her courses (History) they have to write an analysis of a 2 primary sources/documents.

Unfortunately I don't have the background for this.

 

One of her documents is 'The Art of War'.

 

Her professor is helpful but........

 

I am not looking the answer but for ways to find the answer (answer isn't the word I mean but couldn't come up with a better one).

 

How to begin, the who, why where etc.

and she can't use wikipedia(yes yes !!)

 

does any one know of any books about writing this type of analysis.

Peer review journals.

 

there is an on line resource starting with J.... that I think her university might have a subscription to.

 

She will be reading the a translation of the 2 works. she can use secondary and/or terterary(??spelling) resources to support her interpretation/ideas on the subject.

 

I love to listen to kids who are excited about learning and thinking....and she is..

(hey I can brag about my neice).

 

 

 

 

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

so here the exercise is about trying to understand what a text from the studied civilisation (or from a contemporaneous civilisation) says on said civilisation. So you first have to ask yourself questions like "is it truly something from the civilisation from which it is said it is" (for exemple the fake Constantine Donation which the papacy allege gave them Vatican and Rome, which is a proven fake from around 400 years later), then "how far in time is it from the described events" (for exemple using Livy for the roman royal period), and so determine if it's legit to use it for your study. Then you may go further and ask yourself "ok, this text is from 200 years later than the event, but could he be in fact using some more ancient source, and thus preserve a lost thruth" (think Livy writing on the punic war). Then ask yourself : "does the author, from what we know, try to manipulate the events in order to make himself or his opinion look better" (think Xenophon in the Anabasis").

 

When you've done all that (and, in fact, much more internal and external checking I won't go into detail here) you can begin to do the same kind of questioning for the content of the text itself. Ok, say that an author speak of Caesar landing in Britain with an elephant, is that right or is it, in fact, a mistake due to a confusion with Claudius bringing one when he came in the area ?

 

So start her along this course, and indeed she can use encyclopedias and secondary/tertiary sources to check the answers to those basic questions.

[Melvadius]

Artimi,

 

You haven't said what the second document is, whether it is also a Chinese document (I am assuming Sun Tzu' Art of War, on a similar topic or from another culture eg Frontinius Strategemata and if the task is simply to analyse or compare and contrast.

 

This is actually key to deciding how your neice needs to undertake this task. Irrespective of what the requirement is one of her first tasks will be to look at some background cultural/ historical reference material relating to the documents eg who was writing, who may they have been writing for, were there religious or other factors which may have affected this writing and what do the documents tell us about the cultures and/ or each other.

 

PS the 'J' website may well be 'JANET' which is the UK' research and education website.

[Artimi]

Bryaxis and Melvadius.

thanks for you radvise. I have relayed it to my neice and now it is her hands..