How to Read a Document

How to Read a Document

Learning to read documents in a sensitive and analytical manner is a skill that has wide application in career and personal situations. Here is a list of 14 key questions that can help one analyze documents:

1. What kind of document is this?

2. Who is the author?

3. Who is the intended reader?

4. What is the message?

5. Is the document accurate--both internally consistent and validated by other sources?

6. Why was it written?

7. How original, informative, and relevant is it?

8. What assumptions does the document contain?

9. How authentic is the document? Are there issues concerning translation, versions, editing, or the pathway by which it was transmitted to us?

10. What is missing that might or should have been there?

11. What do we know about the outcome that the author might not have known?

12. How have historians and others interpreted this document?

13. What mistakes are people apt to make in interpreting this document?

14. Even if the source is problematic, does the document still contain credible, useful information, including on other topics than the main one it appears to address?