What are Primary and Secondary sources?
Answer
Primary sources
Primary sources are original documents such as interview or photographs.
Primary sources can help if you were writing about a historical event, such as a demonstration, then you could use a photograph of the demonstrators.
If you wanted to learn more about slavery, you could read the slave narratives located online from the Library of Congress.
If you were doing a paper on early jazz music, you could also use the Library of Congress for sound recordings.
Examples of a primary source are:
- Diaries
- Speeches
- Manuscripts
- Letters
- Interviews
- Eyewitness accounts
- Autobiographies
Here is a link to Calisphere, which has California historical documents and archives.
Secondary sources
Secondary sources offer an analysis, interpretation or a restatement of primary sources and are usually persuasive. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources.
Secondary sources are helpful to obtain an overview of a topic and/or identify primary resources. Such as if you are writing a research paper on a fiction book for your English course.
If you are looking for interpretations the themes or imagery on a book like Don Quixote. You can search for a literary criticism on Don Quixote written by scholar for a better understanding of the themes, the author's meaning or imagery.
Examples of secondary sources:
- Textbooks
- Journal articles
- Magazine articles
- Book reviews
- Commentaries
- Encyclopedias
- Almanacs