Research Worksheet

1. List at least three things you would like to know about your subject.

1.


2.


3.

2. Where might you find information about the topics you listed above?
Topic: Source of Information:

3. Primary sources are those created by people who actually saw or participated in an event and recorded that event
or their reactions to it immediately after the event. Secondary sources are those created by someone either not
present when that event occurred or removed from it by time. Even though they are found in the archives, are any
of the sources you listed in #2 secondary sources? Which ones?

4. Some sources of historical information are viewed as more reliable than others, though all may be useful. Factors
such as bias, self-interest, distance, and faulty memory affect the reliability of a source. Rewrite below the
sources of information you listed in #2 in order according to their reliability from most reliable to least reliable.

5. What personal and social factors influence you as you read historical accounts of people and events?

Adapted from the design developed by the Education Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408.