strengths

• Practical Access to historical data

  • Sometimes documents are the only source of information, for example in studying the past.

  historical documents allow us to examine a society of the past, where there are no living people to study.

  • Even if there are people still alive from that era, they may not be able to accurately recall events.

  Diary of Ann Frank was written during WW2 and documents her experiences as they happened as she is no longer alive, researchers wouldn’t be able to access this information any other way.
• Practical – Time and Cost

  • Documents provide a free source of huge amounts of qualitative data. For example, published biographies, autobiographies and diaries provide a rich source of information about a person that would have taken a very long time to compile. Sociologists can make use of this data, saving them both time and money.
• 1. Theoretical – ‘Validity’

  • Personal documents in particular, such as diaries and letters, enable the researcher to get close to the social actor's reality, and provide a truthful picture of how they view the world.
  • They provide a valid insight into both a person's individual experiences, presented from their own point of view, and into the wider social forces that affect their lives.