How do I analyse a historical source?

When I analyses a source I keep it simple and look primarily a three main features that can affect a source. These include the date the source was written, who was the intended audience for the source and finally who wrote the source. For ease when revising I find it useful to colour code these three main points as well as isolating the source within a page.

For example an NSDAP Leaflet written in 1920 in which it blames 300 bankers throughout the world for the economic downturn that the country was facing.

Shake off your Jewish leaders………..Don’t expect anything from the Bolsheviks (Russian Communists) ….. (The Russian Government) is nine-tenths Jewish. Bolshevism is a Jewish swindle.”

This small excerpt shows the kind of language used by the NSDAP (later to be known Nazi Party) in order to play on already underlying anti-sematic feelings in the country as well as appealing to those that have fallen n bad times to have a cause for their ill fate.