1. 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.

2. 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Published  unpublished documents;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;