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Why
is the Point of View (POV) or Perspective important?
The crucial skill teachers and readers are looking
for in a student’s approach to documents
is the awareness that the documents are not statements
of facts; but rather descriptions, interpretations,
or opinions of events and developments made by
particular people at particular places and times,
and often for specific reasons. Too often, students
write essays in which they take the documents
at face value. Instead, students should be applying
critical thinking skills to documents, evaluating
whether they are likely to be accurate and complete,
and in what ways the author of the document may
be revealing bias.
Steps to Analysis of Documents:
• Examine AUTHORSHIP of
the document. Examples: occupation, reputation,
how well known, positions this author has taken
on issues.
• Examine the CIRCUMSTANCES
of the document. Examples: where it was said,
when, to whom, then interpret how the document
relates to the question. Often interpretations
will include the author trying to win popular
support and/or using emotional arguments.
• Examine probable INTENT
of the document. Examples: a campaign speech,
a law, a justification of some prior event, an
attempt to persuade someone of something, a reflection,
a dramatization of an event.
• Examine CONTRACTORY documents.
Examples: Is the conclusion or contradiction over
values; has one or have several authors misrepresented
the facts? Does the contradiction represent a
basic issue of the times? Was one position more
acceptable to any particular group?
• Examine CHRONOLOGY of
the documents if the question is over a time period.
Example: Begin by arranging the documents in a
chronological order, then insert significant events
to relate.
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