Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary Sources

 Immediate
o first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it
 Original records created at the time historical events occurred, or well after events occurred

Primary sources may include

Letters oral histories memoirs

Manuscripts newspapers Gov. documents

Diaries speeches photographs

Journals interviews audio recordings

artifacts video recordings

Primary sources

 serve as the raw material to interpret the past

 done by the person which is actually there on the time

When used along with previous interpretations by historians,

o they provide the resources necessary for historical research

Other examples of primary

 Recorded speeches, memoirs of soldiers, government documents

Secondary Sources

 Build from primary sources

o with more extensive and in-depth analyses
 They summarize, evaluate, and analytically interpret primary material,
o often by offering a personal perspective
 Published works with list of sources of information
o which can be used to locate additional information for research or unexplored topics
 Used to see what others have discussed
o can be a good place to gather background information on a particular topic

General examples:

Textbooks review articles

monographs (books) dissertations

encyclopedias thesis
 analysis

Tertiary Sources

 distillations and collections of primary and secondary sources

 makes use of the original and choose the best points from the second to create a third work
 The information is compiled and digested into factual representation,
o so that it does not obviously reflect points of view, critiques or persuasions

Tertiary sources

 typically the last to be published in the information cycle

 Use for a general overview of topic and for background information for research

Because it has been filtered through by many reviewers,

 it tends to consist of highly reliable and accurate information

 plus contain broad perspectives of topics

General examples

Encyclopedias guides
directories classification
dictionaries chronology
handbooks other fact books