This is to help you think about how to read, analyze and evaluate sources (primary or secondary) in order to write a well-organized and focused historical essay.

What is a historical essay?

History writing aims to answer a question (or questions) in order to enrich our historical knowledge of the human experience. It is an attempt to know what things mean. In some ways, a historian is like a journalist, in that she or he asks the five W's: who, what, where, when, why? Consider the influences on the writer who has produced the source; how do these affect the use of this source as historical evidence? Under what circumstances and for what audience was it written? Who is the author and is he or she reliable? Does he or she have a particular agenda? Are there significant omissions or silences in the text? Assess the quality of the source in the context of the particular topic under consideration. When looking at the data contained in your source(s), your task is not merely to report the information, but rather, to supply an interpretation of what the data mean.

A good historical essay includes the following:
 

1. It has an argument about what the facts mean. (A thesis.)

2. It is sharply focused and limited in its topic. An essay is just that: an essay. It should not attempt too much, particularly without a wide range of sources and research. You should provide focus and detail in a tightly organized essay in order to produce a solid paper.

3. It is clearly and well-written. (How can a teacher evaluate an essay without understanding what the student is trying to communicate?) Proper grammar, spelling and documentation of sources are absolutely required.

A primary source is one that is closest in time and experience to the historical topic under study. Examples include: documents; first person accounts (written or oral) by observers or participants; contemporary newspaper, journal articles or novels; letters, diaries, memoirs and autobiographies; visual "documents" such as photographs, paintings or architecture. A secondary source is one written about and/or based upon primary sources: a history book or article, for example.

A source is not some objective version of reality. Usually it is produced by a human being who is by definition imperfect. Government documents do not appear by themselves; they are reports, correspondence or statistics recorded by a human hand. These humans sometimes---often---have a position or attitude about the subject contained in the document. The same is true for almost every other source. Selection of certain sources and rejection or omission of others is in itself a subjective act since it results in telling only certain aspects of the story. The moral of the above is: read and use sources critically.