ABSTRACT
Chapter 10 introduced some of the types of documents that researchers might analyse, including personal documents (diaries/autobiographies/letters/photographs), official documents, mass media outputs, internet outputs and more. The type of documents researchers may wish to analyse is large and varied and, as Chapter 10 indicated, researchers can be concerned with both qualitative and quantitative documentary sources. With both types of sources, we should be mindful of the assumptions that underlie the questions that have been asked and the way any data has been collected, analysed and presented. In many ways, therefore, whether data is qualitative or quantitative becomes less important than the assumptions that underpin it. What is important is taking a structured approach to analysing documents and being able to demonstrate a robust methodology. We have seen our own students fail to do this and consequently fail to produce what had the potential to be very strong pieces of work. We have also seen students who have taken a clear and logical approach to analysing documents and produced excellent work. We hope that by reading this chapter you will fall into the latter category.
