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Unit 2 Lesson 2 Content Textual Analysis)

This document discusses analyzing primary sources through content/textual analysis. It provides: 1) Learning objectives for analyzing context, content, and perspective of primary sources, and developing critical analysis skills. 2) An overview of content analysis as a systematic evaluation of primary sources to develop arguments based on evidence. 3) Details on external and internal criticism for examining authenticity and truthfulness of sources, including questions to consider for each. 4) General principles for determining source reliability, such as whether it is an eyewitness account, consistency across sources, and potential for bias. The goal is to equip students to critically examine accounts and issues in Philippine history using primary sources.

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Ayessa Ancheta
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240 views4 pages

Unit 2 Lesson 2 Content Textual Analysis)

This document discusses analyzing primary sources through content/textual analysis. It provides: 1) Learning objectives for analyzing context, content, and perspective of primary sources, and developing critical analysis skills. 2) An overview of content analysis as a systematic evaluation of primary sources to develop arguments based on evidence. 3) Details on external and internal criticism for examining authenticity and truthfulness of sources, including questions to consider for each. 4) General principles for determining source reliability, such as whether it is an eyewitness account, consistency across sources, and potential for bias. The goal is to equip students to critically examine accounts and issues in Philippine history using primary sources.

Uploaded by

Ayessa Ancheta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lesson 2 CONTENT/TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Learning objectives/outcomes
At the end of the topic, students shall be able to
1. Analyze the context, content and perspective of different kinds of primary
sources;
2. Develop critical skills with exposure to primary sources.

In the previous lesson, we have discussed the importance of familiarizing oneself


about the different kinds of historical sources. The historian’s primary tool of
understanding and interpreting the past is the historical sources. Historical sources
ascertain historical facts. Such facts are then analyzed and interpreted by the historian
to weave historical narratives.
Content analysis is a research method for studying documents and
communication artifacts, which can be texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video.

Content analysis is a systematic evaluation of the primary source be it a text,


painting, caricature, and or speech that in the process students could develop and
present an argument based on their own understanding of the evidences from their
readings.

Using primary sources in historical research entails two kinds of criticism. The
first one is the external criticism, and the second one is the internal criticism.
External criticism examines the authenticity of the document or the evidence being
used. This is important in ensuring that the primary source is not fabricated. On the
other hand, internal criticism examines the truthfulness of the content of the evidence.
However, this criticism requires not just the act establishing truthfulness and/or
accuracy but also the examination of the primary sources in terms of the context of its
production. For example, a historian would have to situate the document in the period
of its production, or in the background of its authors. In other words, it should be
recognized that facts are neither existing in a vacuum nor produced from a blank slate.
These are products of the time and of the people.
External Criticism
Key (1997) enumerates a series of questions to establish the genuineness of a
document or relic:

1. Does the language and writing style conform to the period in question and is it
typical of other work done by the author?
2. Is there evidence that the author exhibits ignorance of things or events that
man of his training and time should have known?
3. Did he report about things, events, or places that could not have been known
during that period?
4. Has the original manuscript been altered intentionally or unintentionally by
copying?
5. Is the document an original draft or a copy? If it is a copy, was it reproduced
in the exact words of the original?
6. If manuscript is undated or the author unknown, are there any clues internally
as to its origin? (Key, 1997)

Gilbert J. Garragham (1946) provides the following questions:


1. When was the source written or unwritten, produced (date)?
2. Where was it produced (localization)?
3. By whom was it produced (authorship)?
4. From what pre-existing material was it produced (analysis)?
5. In what original form was it produced (integrity)?

Internal Criticism
Key (1997) provides the following questions to check the content of the source
of information.
1. What was meant by the author by each word and statement?
2. How much credibility can the author’s statement be given (Key, 1997)

Gilbert J. Garragham (1946) asks the questions below for internal criticism
1. What is the evidential value of its contents (credibility)?

General Principles for Determining Reliability


Olden-Jorgensen (1998) and Thuren (1997), two Scandinavian historians,
have formulated the following general principles in determining reliability:
1. Human sources may be relics such as fingerprints; or narratives such as
statement or a letter. Relics are more credible sources than narratives.
2. Any given source may be forged or corrupted. Strong indications of the
originality of the source increase its reliability.
3. The closer a source is to the event which it purports to describe, the
more one can trust it to give an accurate historical description of what actually
happened.
4. An eyewitness is more reliable than testimony at second hand, which is
more reliable than hearsay at further remove, and so on.
5. If a number of independent sources contain the same message, the
credibility of the message is strongly increased.
6. The tendency of a source is its motivation for providing some kind of
bias. Tendencies should be minimized or supplemented with opposite
motivations.
7. If it can be demonstrated that the witness or source has no direct
interest in creating bias than the credibility of the message is increased.
Having a thorough knowledge of the
different sources of history, you are now
ready to examine the different accounts
on some controversial issues in Philippine
history.

A. Read the accounts on Tejeros Convention one by Santiago Alvarez “ Memoirs


of General” the primary source and the other one is by Teodoro Agoncillo’s “Revolts
of the Masses” the secondary source (Grey, 2017).

After reading the two accounts on Tejeros


Convention one from Santiago Alvarez and the
other one the Revolts of the Masses, please work on
the activity below .

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