Reading Primary Sources Analytically
Abstract
Students often need to develop foundational, analytical reading habits in order to make meaningful and nuanced claims about historical artifacts. Pedagogically-minded scholarship from the discipline of Rhetoric and Composition can provide useful models for facilitating deeper engagement with source readings. Employing basic rhetorical analysis strategies as a means of exploring primary sources and historical content fosters analytical habits that supercede skimming tendencies and open avenues for rich discussion, meaningful interpretation, and further examination of music-historical issues. To demonstrate one such application, this article explores a pedagogical approach to source readings adapted from David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen’s Writing Analytically: The Method, which moves methodically from observation of patterns, contrasts, and anomalies to interpretation and critical questioning.
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