When providing a summary of source there are a few important aspects that must be noted. These include the basics about the source (author, publisher/publication, and date) as well as what the purpose of the source is. In writing your Source Summary, you should be about one page in length, 12-point font, double spacing (this is about 400-425 words). When writing your summary be sure to provide the answers to these questions:
- What is the author’s main point?
- What conclusions did the author reach?
- What is your opinion or evaluation of this source?
- What would be a good topic for which this source could be used?
You are more than welcome to use any Primary Source you would like, but it must have been written before 1500 CE. If you choose one that is written afterwards and you do not consult me about it, you will be asked to do the assignment over. Here is a brief list of Primary sources I am providing for you. If you choose a source from outside this list, you are encouraged to only review between 5-10 pages of the work, depending on the text in question. If you have questions, please ask! 🙂
Available Primary Sources
Databases and Collections
THEOI TEXTS LIBRARY: (Links to an external site.)Greek and Roman texts.
Avalon Project at Yale (Links to an external site.): Medieval texts, there are also Ancient texts and texts between 1400-1500 CE (do not choose a text from outside of our time period).
Eyewitnesses to History (Links to an external site.): a very fun site that has excerpts from various works and a short intro to contextualize the excerpt. Some of these are short, so make sure that you are pulling from a long enough text. You are more than welcome to do two if you want. And if you have questions then please ask. 🙂
The Internet Classics Archive (Links to an external site.): mostly Ancient Mediterranean authors, but a few from outside that region.
Perseus Digital Library (Links to an external site.): great site for texts in their original languages. They have a lot of translated material as well, which is where the link will take you.
Internet Sacred Text Archive (Links to an external site.): great site for everything religious or sacred in nature. The only issue here is that a lot of the dates they have here are when the particular edition is written, so that may be confusing. Most of the content here is eligible, even if it says it was written in 1890 or something. If you aren’t sure then ask! 🙂
Chinese Text Project (Links to an external site.): I just found this one and I am not very familiar with it. Some of these texts have English translations and some don’t. Poke around if you are interested.
Wikisource (Links to an external site.): good old Wikisource, a lot of the same stuff as the other databases heavy on western literature.
Ancient Texts
Mesopotamian texts:
Gilgamesh Tablet XI (“The Flood Myth” Tablet) (Links to an external site.)
Ancient Greek texts:
All of the poems of Sapho (3 full poems and 35 fragments) (Links to an external site.)
Histories by Herodotus (excerpt concerning the culture of the Persians)
Hebrew Scriptures:
Song of Songs or Song of Solomon (erotic love poem from the bible) (Links to an external site.)
Han Chinese texts:
Imperial Japanese texts:
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (first five paragraphs on the death of Genji’s mother)
Viking Icelandic texts:
Njal’s Saga (5 chapters on the Christianization of Iceland)
Medieval Christian Ethiopian texts:
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