MODULE 3: PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCE WORKSHEET & COMPARISON ESSAY
OVERVIEW
One of the most important skills of historians is the ability to evaluate and analyze primary and secondary sources for this course and future courses. This assignment focuses on these skills as you research and compose a Compare and Contrast Report on selected primary and secondary resources. Read the description in the definitions section below carefully. The questions it contains are the ones you must answer to write your essay. Follow the steps listed in the three sections below to complete this assignment.
INSTRUCTIONS
PRIMARY SOURCE
1. Select one of the sources on the Primary Source List.
2. Read the source material for at least 30 minutes and watch the associated video clip (you won’t evaluate the video; it is only provided to help clarify the topic of your source).
3. Analyze the selected primary source using the 5 W’s – Who? What? Where? When? Why? – outlined in the Definitions section of this assignment’s Introduction. Complete the appropriate sections of the P/S Worksheet, found here.
SECONDARY SOURCE
1. Locate a secondary source (book, article, essay, etc.) that comments on the issue or event in your primary source. For example, if your primary source is Darwin’s writing on On the Origin of the Species, you would look for a secondary source that comments on Darwin’s ideas (either positively or negatively). NOTE: Lecture readings or Wikipedia are not acceptable secondary sources for this assignment.
2. Read the secondary source material (i.e., research it) for at least 30 minutes.
3. Analyze the source using the 5 W’s – Who? What? Where? When? Why? Complete the appropriate sections of the P/S Worksheet for the secondary source.
4. For more guidance on completing the worksheet, check out this sample.
ESSAY
1. Evaluate your sources as outlined in the Introduction to this assignment. Use your completed worksheet to help you craft your essay.
2. Write a properly formatted, double-spaced analysis and comparison that answers the five W’s for each of your sources. For more guidance, check out this example essay.
3. Summarize what you learned about the event from both the primary and secondary sources that you selected. Make sure you compare both the sources and the source types in this paragraph.
4. Reference your sources with a bibliography at the end of your evaluation for all primary sources, secondary sources and video (if applicable). Use Chicago style formatting for your sources.
5. Submit your completed worksheet and essay to the assignment folder by the scheduled due date.
PRIMARY SOURCES LIST
• Wilson, “Fourteen Points Speech”; video clip: “The Pursuit of Peace: Time to Remember”
• “A Death at the Battle of the Somme”; video clip: “The Somme 1916: From Both Sides of the Wire Series”
• “Nazi Statements on the Jewish Question”, “Nazi Euthanasia”, “Nazi Medical Experiments”, “Sterilization of Jewish Workers”; video clip: “Children of the Holocaust”
• “The Nanking Massacre”; video clip: “The Rape of Nanking”
• U.S. National Archives, “Documents on Japanese War Crimes”; video clip: “Japanese War Crimes: Murder Under the Sun”
• “Documents from the 1969 Furor”; video clip: “After Stonewall: America’s LGBT Movement”
• Newton & Seale, “The Black Panther Party Platform” video clip: “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution”
• Kenyatta, “The Kenya Africa Union is Not the Mau Mau”; video clip: “Kenya: National Identity and Unity”
• U Thant, “The Congo Problem”; video clip: “War in Congo: An Overview”
• Nehru, “Marxism, Capitalism and Non-Alignment”; video clip: “Walking with Nehru”
• Sukarno, “Speech at the Opening of the Bandung Conference”; video clip: “Indonesia, The Invisible Giant – Episode 1” [15:00 – 42:00]
• el Sadat, “Afro-Asian Solidarity and the World Mission of the Peoples of Africa and Asia”; video clip: “Anwar Sadat”
• Nkrumah, “I Speak of Freedom”; video clip and resource: “Kwame Nkrumah: Fighting for a United Africa”
• U.S. National Security Archive, “Documents Related to Latin American Projects”; video clip: “CNN Perspectives – Cold War episode 18: Backyard, 1954-1990Module 3
