Question- "What were the benefits and drawbacks to the Ottoman Empire of the reforms adopted during the tanzimat period?"
Secondary Source- Selim Deringil, The well-protected domains : ideology and the legitimation of power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909 (1998) Check this secondary source for a "testable hypothesis" such as Deringil's "The Tanzimat Edict (Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif) of 1839 was a critical milestone in Ottoman legal history, for it was nothing less than a public declaration by the sultan that he would respect the rule of law" (p.45).
Primary source- "Archives Unbound: Middle East" You can find a tutorial here. A search for "tanzimat" yields 24 results; sorted by date, the earliest dates to 1914 (while five years after Deringil's period, it's still before World War I). In FO 141/735/2 [from the U.K. National Archives, Foreign Office papers], a further search for "tanzimat" goes straight to D.S. Margoliouth "Address of the President" (4 April 1911). The last paragraph may be used to prove or disprove any of Deringil's assertions regarding this period, and addresses the question from the textbook ("What were the benefits and drawbacks to the Ottoman Empire of the reforms adopted during the tanzimat ?") as well.