Purpose of this blog post- Rewrite in our own words what is the historical method and how do we use it.
There are certain steps that historians must follow in order to gather correct and accurate information about the past. Those steps are called, "Historical Method". The first step is to gather all the information. For example if historians decided to study ancient Greece they would gather all the books, songs, artifacts, poems or any written sources that could help them prove their predictions or theories. After they gather all the information they need to categorize the sources. In my words they need to separate them into 2 different groups; written and non-written. Written sources are things like books, letters, poems, speeches or songs from the past. Fossils, artifacts, oral traditions, monuments; all those would fall under non-written sources. After they separate them into two different groups they need to evaluate them all. They need to ask questions about them. If they can't prove what they found then how do we know that it is true? Historians need to ask themselves and others questions about their researches. One important thing that historians need to know it the time of origin. Which means, that they need to decide weather their information that they found is primary or secondary source. Primary sources are sources that were written down during the event by people who were there while everything was going on. Secondary sources are books, articles written long after the event. For historians it is of course better to find primary sources because they are more accurate. The next step is to interpret sources. Which means to discuss different points of view. One scientists could thinks that the slaves during the slavery in ancient Greece deserved to have been treated the way they were. Another might think that it was unfair. Many people have many different points of view and once you see them you really think about everything and consider different peoples opinions. The last but not least step is to share their findings with the rest of the crew. Everything that historians find has to go through all these steps and in the end it needs to be shared with everyone else. They have to make theories about it, predictions.
So these is what I think of when I think about the Historical Method! I hope you agree with me! Thanks!
There are certain steps that historians must follow in order to gather correct and accurate information about the past. Those steps are called, "Historical Method". The first step is to gather all the information. For example if historians decided to study ancient Greece they would gather all the books, songs, artifacts, poems or any written sources that could help them prove their predictions or theories. After they gather all the information they need to categorize the sources. In my words they need to separate them into 2 different groups; written and non-written. Written sources are things like books, letters, poems, speeches or songs from the past. Fossils, artifacts, oral traditions, monuments; all those would fall under non-written sources. After they separate them into two different groups they need to evaluate them all. They need to ask questions about them. If they can't prove what they found then how do we know that it is true? Historians need to ask themselves and others questions about their researches. One important thing that historians need to know it the time of origin. Which means, that they need to decide weather their information that they found is primary or secondary source. Primary sources are sources that were written down during the event by people who were there while everything was going on. Secondary sources are books, articles written long after the event. For historians it is of course better to find primary sources because they are more accurate. The next step is to interpret sources. Which means to discuss different points of view. One scientists could thinks that the slaves during the slavery in ancient Greece deserved to have been treated the way they were. Another might think that it was unfair. Many people have many different points of view and once you see them you really think about everything and consider different peoples opinions. The last but not least step is to share their findings with the rest of the crew. Everything that historians find has to go through all these steps and in the end it needs to be shared with everyone else. They have to make theories about it, predictions.
So these is what I think of when I think about the Historical Method! I hope you agree with me! Thanks!
