Primary Sources
Primary sources are the "materials on a topic upon which subsequent interpretations or studies are based, anything from firsthand documents such as poems, diaries, court records, and interviews to research results generated by experiments, surveys, ethnographies, and so on."
Primary sources are records of events as they are first described, without any interpretation or commentary. They are also sets of data, such as census statistics, which have been tabulated, but not interpreted.
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources, on the other hand, offer an analysis or a restatement of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources. Some secondary sources not only analyze primary sources, but also use them to argue a contention or to persuade the reader to hold a certain opinion.
Tertiary Sources
Examples include encyclopedias and textbooks
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|
Primary Source |
Secondary Source |
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Art |
Original artwork |
Article critiquing the piece of art |
|
History |
Slave diary |
Book about the Underground Railroad |
|
Literature |
Poem |
Treatise on a particular genre of poetry |
|
Political Science |
Treaty |
Essay on Native American land rights |
|
Theatre |
Videotape of a performance |
Biography of a playwright |
Reprinted from Bowling Green State University Library Instruction Web Page, http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/infosrv/lue/primary.html
