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NARRATOR: HAPPY document analysis. Documents of any kind, journals, news articles, pictures, tweets, political cartoons, et cetera, tell a story and depict a particular event or topic. One event or topic can have many different depictions, but each only show you parts of the overall story, what you understand about the topic and what your opinions are may change depending on which depictions you see.

HAPPY is a way of analyzing the various influences on documents and how this shapes our understanding of them. H stands for historical context. Historical context is the background to a document's publication. What major events are occurring at the time and how might they influence the document and the author?

A is for intended audience. Intended audience is who the document is meant for. What about that audience may shape what is included or excluded in the document? If you want to persuade, do you speak a certain way? Who did the document have the greatest impact on and what?

P is purpose. Purpose is why the document was created and tends to be a verb. Documents aren't just meant to show us something. What does the author want their audience to do after reading it? Were they trying to convince their audience to trust them, vote for them?

P is point of view. Point of view is the perspective that the author has when approaching a certain topic. What background about the author may influence their opinions and writings on particular topics? What larger group might the author represent? Biases?

Y is why does it matter? Why or how did each part of HAPPY influence the argument made in the document. Y is the significant. How does it shape our understanding of the topic? Prove your argument.

Analyzing the various influences on documents such as their historical context, intended audience, purpose, and point of view of the author allow us to grasp more well-rounded understanding of the topic and the pros and cons of using a particular document to study that topic. Remember that the whole point of HAPPY is to understand why that influence is significant and how we can learn from it. Happy document analyzing.