Reading Primary Sources
The Six Cs of Primary Source Analysis
Provided by The History Project at UC Irvine. A downloadable printout of the questionnaire is available here.- Content (Main Idea) - Describe in detail what you see and read.
- Context - What is going on in the world, the country, the region, or the locality when this was created?
- Communication (Perspective) - What is the purpose of the source? Who is the intended audience?
- Citation (Author/Creator) - Consider who created the source and what you know about this person. When was this created? What type of source is it?
- Connections (Prior Knowledge) - Link the primary source to other things that you already know or have learned about. How does the source relate to what you are already studying?
- Conclusions - How can we use the source to answer our inquiry question? What other source might you need to answer your inquiry questions? What questions do you have about this source?
