How to Work with Primary Sources

A lot of you have had trouble making SOAPS work with the photographs in this unit. Answer the following questions about each photo instead.

ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHS

Observation
Describe exactly what you see in the photo.
What people and objects are shown?
How are they arranged?
What is the physical setting?
What other details can you see?

Knowledge
Summarize what you already know about the situation and time period shown, and the people and objects that appear.

Interpretation
Say what you conclude from what you see.
What's going on in the picture?
Who are the people and what are they doing?
What might be the function of the objects?
What can we conclude about the time period?

Further Research
What questions has the photo raised? What are some sources you can use to find answers?


Still having trouble with SOAPS? Maybe this will help.

Who is the Speaker? (what do we know of the speaker strictly form the document, what do we know from the metadata, what do we know from further research?)

What is the Occasion? (Time period, historical significance, other contemporary events)

Who is the Audience? (Who was the document designed for in its time?)

What is the Purpose of the document? (What did the document do or achieve? Was that its intended purpose?)

What is the Subject of the document? (what is the basic story?)

SOAPbox: What are your thoughts, impressions, opinions and questions about this primary source?