OPVL Created By: Amy Strong North Mecklenburg High School International Baccalaureate

OPVL What’s the point? All sources must be approached with caution When reading a source one must consider who wrote it, why they wrote it, what is included, what is left out, and how helpful this source will be to one’s investigation

ORIGINS Author Date of original publication Date of any additional additions Location of publication How might the time, place, and author of this work affect the work produced? For example: George Washington writing about Valley Forge will have a different interpretation than General Cornwallis.

PURPOSE Why did the author write/draw/compose this work? * Consider the audience * Does this author have something to hide? * Is he/she trying to convince anyone of something? * For example: Is this a textbook that is written to inform a high school student or a press conference given to reassure the American public?

VALUE How is this source useful to your investigation? What is the author’s purpose and how can that perception aid your investigation? Has this work been particularly well researched? Is this a secondary source? If so, does that allow the author distance to create a subjective argument? Is this a primary source? If so, does that allow the author to provide a viewpoint that no one else can (since they experienced it for themselves?)

LIMITATIONS What about this source hinders your investigation? Does this author only present part of the story? Is this a secondary source? If so, does the author deliver only part of the story? Is this a primary source? If so, what viewpoint does the author present? What is missing from his/her side of the story?

L IMITATIONS E XPLAINED The task here is not to point out weaknesses of the source, but rather to say: at what point does this source cease to be of value to us as historians? With a primary source document, having an incomplete picture of the whole is a given because the source was created by one person (or a small group of people), naturally they will not have given every detail of the context. Do not say that the author left out information unless you have concrete proof (from another source) that they chose to leave information out. Also, it is obvious that the author did not have prior knowledge of events that came after the creation of the document. Do not state that the document “does not explain X” (if X happened later).

Being biased does not limit the value of a source! If you are going to comment on the bias of a document, you must go into detail. Who is it biased towards? Who is it biased against? What part of a story does it leave out? Sometimes a biased piece of work shows much about the history you are studying What part of the story can we NOT tell from this document? How can we verify the content of the piece? Does this piece inaccurately reflect anything about the time period? What does the author leave out and why does he/she leave it out (if you know)? What is purposely not addressed?

II. Sample “OPVL” Paragraph The origin of this source is a journal that was written by _________ in ________ in _______. Its purpose was to _________________ so _________________. A value of this is that it gives the perspective of ________________________. However, a limitation is that __________, making ______________________.

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