When looking at a document, instead of asking "What am I looking for?" try asking "What are you telling me?"
Primary sources don’t “tell you who they are.” Books do – the title page tells you its title, who wrote the book, and when and where it was published. With primary sources it’s more of a conjecture/discovery process and far more of a challenge.
Realize that you know more about history than you think you do, and that knowledge informs the analysis process.
You are looking for evidence to solve a historical mystery. Sometimes the clues are small and you have to put the pieces together. Does your document contribute something to this mystery?
What is the value of this primary source to history? Is it an appropriate representation of a historical moment?
Create a narrative. Tell a story with the documents. What part of the story is your document?
What hasn’t been said in these documents? What are the “silences”?