1) Background Information
What is the nature of the document? Is it a legal, political, religious, or scientific tract or treatise? A letter, speech, or an eyewitness account of an event? Where and when was it written and published, and in what language? What experiences enabled the author to write it?
2) Author’s Point of View
What were the author’s likely motives in writing the document? What audience was he or she addressing? What were his or her beliefs, passions, or biases, and how would they enhance or detract from the value of the document as a source of historical knowledge?
3) What Can We Learn From This Document?
What is the document’s central message or narrative, its key ideas or arguments? What light do you think this document sheds on significant developments or events in world history? Your answer to this question is the heart of your analysis and should be the bulk of the paper. You might end with questions or speculations that your analysis gives rise to and then suggest possible new avenues of research.
*You should document any references to the text or other information you provide in footnotes or endnotes. Use reputable scholarly sources in libraries or on the Internet, not unscholarly Internet sites like Wikipedia.
topic: Emperor Qianlong, ” Letter to King George III”
