Documents No2

Documents are a secondary source of data that researchers can use to study social life

Types of documents-

Personal documents- Diaries, letters, autobiographies, emails

Public documents- Government reports, school records, court proceedings, newspaper articles

Historical documents- Old parish records, historical letters, speeches, archives

Advantages of using documents-

Cheap and accessible- Many are already available (online, libraries)

Insight of meaning- Especially personal documents- good for interpretivists

Can be used for longitudinal study’s- Historical documents show change over time

Check against primary data- Can be used to triangulate with interviews, observations

Disadvantages of using documents-

Authenticity- Is it real and not forged or altered

Credibility- Is it accurate, honest and free of bias

Representativeness- Do diaries reflect the whole population, usually not

Interpretation issues- Risk of meaning or misinterpreting the meaning/ context

Key concept

Content analysis- A quantitative method to analyse documents (counting words or themes in newspapers)

Thematic analysis- A qualitative method- interpreting patterns or meanings in a document

Scott’s four criteria for assessing documents-