RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

202 HISTORICAL AND DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH
interpretation by the writer, may mean that they
may present an incomplete record of the situation
under concern. Some documents, though they
exist, may not be available to the researcher, hence
limiting the study. Where documents do exist,
they may come in so many different forms that a
standard analytical format (e.g. content analysis,
discussed in Chapter 23) may be impossible.
Further, the documents must be studied in their
context, in order to understand their significance
at the time. A simple example serves to make
our point: one hundred pounds sterling may seem
asmallamountatthepresenttime,butwhena
document was written say 200 years previously, it
would represent a great deal of money.
In approaching documentary research, a comprehensive,
perhaps formidable, series of questions
has to be addressed (see http://www.routledge.
com/textbooks/9780415368780 – Chapter 8, file
8.2. ppt):
The context of the document
What is the document
Where has the document come from
When was the document written
What kind of document is it
What is the document about
What is the focus of the document
What was the original intention and purposes
(explicit and/or latent) of the document
What were the reasons for, or causes of, the
document Why was it written
What were the political and social contexts
surrounding the document
What were the intended outcomes of the
document
How was the document used/intended to be
used
How was the document actually used
What were the effects/outcomes of the
document
How did the document function in the
phenomenon or situation being researched
What other documents fed into the production
of, or were being used at the same time as, the
document in question
What was the original agenda that the
document served
Who were the original intended audiences of
the document
What is, and was, the status of the document
What was the original context of the
document
What are the style and register of the
document
What does the document both include and
exclude
What does the document’s author(s) take for
granted in the reader(s)
The writer of the document
Who wrote the document
What can be inferred about the writer
What were the interests of the writer
What were the status/position/knowledgeability
of the author(s)
What does the document say about its
author(s)
The researcher and the document
How should the document be read
Who owns/owned the document (e.g. the
researcher, others)
Does the researcher personally know
the author(s) of the document, i.e. what is
the relationship between the researcher and
the author(s)
Was the researcher present in the events
reported (raising the issue of researcher
effects)
How close to, or detached from, the
participants was/is the researcher
What (additional) information does the
researcher and the audience need to know
in order to make sense of the document
How can, should or should not the document
be used in the research
How does the document structure the
researcher
How can the document be best analysed
In reading the document, what does it tell you
about yourself as a reader/researcher