WRITTEN SOURCES OF DATA Documents are ‘social products; they must be examined not simply used as a resource. . . . To treat them as a resource and not a topic’ betrays ‘the interpretive and interactional work that went into their production’; Documents do not often record everything about literal events; they are selective; Records are ‘contractual’ rather than ‘actuarial’, e.g. police records may record that an officer was present rather than what took place.

CONSIDERATIONS IN WRITTEN SOURCES OF DATA Formal/official  informal/lay documents; Published  unpublished documents; Public domain  private papers; Anonymous  authored; Anonymity  objectivity; Facts  beliefs or opinions; Lay  professional; For circulation  not for circulation;