Historical Documents while Writing a Dissertation
17 07 2008I am sure you understand that writing a dissertation without profound research of the topic is impossible. You will have to study piles of the books, articles, documents before the actual process of writing a dissertation starts. Making your research is not easy. Probably, it can be called the most exhausting part of writing the dissertation. However, you will have to take up this challenge.
Studying all the necessary materials requires a lot of your skills. Particularly, your analytical skills will be the most helpful. Analyzing the documents or books that were written some time ago or even several centuries ago is especially tricky. There are a lot of factors that you need to take into account. Otherwise, you will not be able to give a deep and unbiased analysis.
These are some of the factors that you should consider while analyzing:
• What is the exact form of the document (book, article, diary, memorandum, memoirs, treaties or conventions)?
• The historical period and the place where the document was written.
• The author of the document, his/her views, his/her vision of the particular problem. You should also think about the possible biases that the author could have. For instance, an aristocrat is writing about the problems of people living in the countryside.
• Were there any outside circumstances that could have an impact on the work of this author (e.g. fear of imprisonment, censorship, blame and so on).
• Think about the possible audience that the work was written for. Try to imagine the reaction of that audience to this work.
So, you have to view the works of other authors from al the possible perspectives to get a complete image and idea of what is written.
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