Expressive Documents

• Types of expressive documents: Public

  Produced by organisations, charities, welfare agencies, government departments, schools. It would include ofsted reports, minutes of council meetings, published company records and records of parliament debates.
• Types of expressive documents: Personal

  First person accounts of social events and personal experiences. Often including the writers feelings & attitudes. Not only that, but they can be used to document social changes. Examples: novels, letters, autobiographies & diaries.
• Types of expressive documents: Historical


  They are simply a personal or public document created in the past. If we want to study the past historical documents are usually the only source of information (unless in the recent past and there are some people alive who can be questioned) Examples: diaries, photographs, newspaper articles, eyewitness accounts.
• Why expressive should be treated with caution:


  Credibility, is it believable, sincere, honest?

  Representativeness, how representative is the document of society of the time?

  Authenticity, is the document what it claims to be?

  Meaning, will the researcher require special skills to be able interpret the document?
• Example of an expressive document: Anne Frank's diary

  Issue: Being in hiding from the Nazis as a Jew in WW2.

  Verstehen: The feeling of constant fear of being a Jew in Nazi Germany, longing for freedom and living in fear during the Holocaust.

  Issues affecting CRAM: Authenticity as it was edited a lot by her father which may have influenced its content and it makes us wonder if anything has been left out.
• PET Advantages for Expressive documents:

  Practical: cheap source of data as it already exists, some are easy to access (public and some historical), using this info may be quicker than gathering primary data.

  Ethical: Are none.

  Theoretical: Verstehen can be gained about a certain topic, strong validity but it depends on the author's intention, can provide insight into events and issues that are historical.
• PET Disadvantages of Expressive documents:

  Practical: Requires a highly skilled researcher to assess credibility & authenticity, may be hard to access.

  Ethical: May be a consent issue if its a personal document, researcher must be careful to interpret the meaning in the way it was intended.

  Theoretical: Difficult to make generalisations from a few documents, not always highly valid & credibility depends on intention.