Documents

• Documents: Any type of written text where writing is used to convey information.
• Three types of document: Public(official), Personal, Historical.
• Practical evaluation:

  • Strength- Public documents are easy to gain access to.
  • Strength- Cheap to access.
  • Limitation- Personal documents may be hard to access.
  • Limitation-May be time consuming to read through.
• Ethical evaluation:

  • Strength- Won't put anyone in danger.
  • Strength- Easy to gain consent.
  • Limitation- May be hard to keep information confidential.
• Theoretical evaluation:

  • Strength- Very reliable.
  • Strength- Positivism would accept it as a research method.
  • Limitation- May not be valid.
  • Limitation- Interpretivism would reject it as it may not look at the individual.
• Evaluation criteria (Scott): Authenticity, Credibility, representativeness and meaning.
• Authenticity: Is the document what it claims to be, is there any missing pages, who wrote the document.
• Credibility: Is it believable, is it accurate, most documents on the internet aren't checked.
• Representativeness: Is the evidence in the document typical, can it be generalised, certain groups may be underrepresented.
• Meaning: Do you need special skills to understand it, meaning may be interpreted differently.