How to Read a Document

     How do you read a document? It sounds like a pretty ridiculous question doesn't it? During a Humanities class my fellow classmates and I received a document titled: How to Read a Document. My initial response was, I already know how to read a document. But upon further exploration I realized that I only partially knew how to read a document. To read and fully understand a document, specifically a historical document, there are several steps that must be taken.

     Level One: One must learn as much as possible about the author, not just the name of the author but everything, even what can be learned about their personal life. To whom was this document addressed? This is the next question that must be asked to further understand the idea behind the document. Finally one must take note of the story line in order to focus on what is being said and to gain a better knowledge of the material being read.

      Level Two: Dig deeper. Find out why the document was written. In order to develop an analysis one must be able to know the purpose of the document so that the techniques used become evident to the reader. What type of document is this? The form of a document can help the reader to further understand the purpose. What basic assumptions have been made? Some assumptions are left unsaid, some however are quite important to the text and the might be in the text, but they must be identified.

      Level Three: Get Personal. Figure out what makes the story true. Learn something new, information is everywhere in the text, it just needs to be found. Last but not least, what does the document mean to you? Why does it matter? These questions can be answered only when the reader has a true understanding of the text, and when the reader has a true understanding of the text they will know how to read a  document.