Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read

Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

TYPES OF SOURCES

• PRIMARY SOURCES

• SECONDARY SOURCES
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

What is a primary source?

Primary sources provide a first-hand

account or evidence of an event, time,
object, person or even work of art and
are considered authoritative. They
represent original thinking, reports on
discoveries or events, or they can
share new information.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

Often, these sources are created at the

time the events occurred, but they can
also include sources that are created
later. Primary sources provide the
original materials that enable us to get
as close as possible to what happened
during a particular event or time.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

Published materials can be viewed as

primary sources if they come from the
time that is being discussed and were
written or produced by someone with
firsthand experience of the event.
Often, primary sources reflect the
individual viewpoint of a participant or
observer.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources can be written or non-

written (sound, pictures, artifacts, etc.)
as long as they provide raw information
and first-hand evidence. In exploring
how an event affected people at a
certain time, newspaper editorial
/opinion pieces are considered a
primary source.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

A scientific research, present original

thinking, report on discoveries, or
share new information and can
therefore be used as a primary source.
Autobiographies, diaries, personal
letters, and correspondence were
written by people with firsthand
experience of an event and are very
good samples of primary sources.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

If you were to talk about the past in

your speech, argumentative essay or
persuasive essay, you cannot directly
access it yourself, so you need primary
sources that were produced at the time
by participants or witnesses (e.g.
letters, photographs, newspapers).
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

If you were to include something

current, your primary sources can
either be data that you collect
yourself (e.g. through interviews,
surveys, experiments) or sources
produced by people directly involved in
the topic (e.g. official documents or
media texts).
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary Source

• Produced by a person who actually

witnessed and experienced an
event firsthand
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Field/Topic Primary Source
 Letters and diaries
 Photographs and video footage
History  Official documents and records
 Physical objects
 Novels and poems
Art and Literature  Paintings and art installations
 Films and performances
 Interview transcripts
Communication and  Recordings of speeches
Social Studies  Newspapers and magazines
 Social media posts
 Court records
Law and Politics  Legal texts
 Government documents
Sciences  Empirical studies
 Statistical data
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Examples of primary resources
include:
 Autobiographies and memoirs
 Diaries, personal letters, and
correspondence
 Interviews, surveys, and fieldwork
 Internet communications on email,
blogs, listservs, and newsgroups
 Photographs, drawings, and posters
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Examples of primary resources
include:
 Works of art and literature
 Books, magazine and newspaper
articles and ads published at the
time
 Public opinion polls
 Speeches and oral histories
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Examples of primary resources
include:
 Original documents (birth certificates,
property deeds, trial transcripts)
 Research data, such as census
statistics
 Official and unofficial records of
organizations and government
agencies
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Examples of primary resources include:
 Artifacts of all kinds, such as tools,
coins, clothing, furniture, etc.
 Audio recordings, DVDs, and video
recordings
 Government documents (reports, bills,
proclamations, hearings, etc.)
 Patents
 Technical reports
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
What is a secondary source?

Secondary sources offer an analysis,

interpretation or a restatement of
primary sources and are considered to
be persuasive. They often involve
generalization,synthesis, interpretation,
commentary or evaluation to convince
the reader of the creator's argument.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

They often attempt to describe or

explain primary sources. In short, they
describe, discuss, interpret, comment
upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and
process primary sources, often lack the
freshness and immediacy of the original
material.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

On occasion, secondary sources will

collect, organize, and repackage
primary source information to increase
usability and speed of delivery, such as
an online encyclopedia. Like primary
sources, secondary materials can be
written or non-written (sound, pictures,
movies, etc.).
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

When you cite a secondary source,

it’s usually not to analyze it directly.
Instead, you’ll probably test its
arguments against new evidence or
use its ideas to help formulate your
own.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

Examples of secondary sources

include:
 Bibliographies
 Biographical works
 Reference books, including
dictionaries, encyclopedias, and
atlases
 Articles from magazines, journals,
and newspapers after the event
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Examples of secondary sources
include:
 Literature reviews and review
articles (e.g., movie reviews, book
reviews)
 History books and other popular or
scholarly books
 Works of criticism and interpretation
(literature, art works or music)
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Examples of secondary sources
include:
 Commentaries and treatises
(newspaper editorial/opinion pieces)
 Textbooks
 Indexes and abstracts
 journal articles that comment on or
analyze research
 books that interpret, analyze
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Examples of secondary sources
include:

 political commentary
 dissertation
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources

• created by people who were not present

during the events
• referenced primary sources of information
• derived from primary information
• can be summaries of primary sources
• can analyze and interpret primary sources
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary and Secondary Source Examples
Primary Sources Secondary Sources
Novel Article analyzing the novel
Painting Exhibition catalog
explaining the painting
Letters and diaries Biography of the historical
written by a historical figure
figure
Essay by a philosopher Textbook summarizing the
philosopher’s ideas
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Photographs of a historical Documentary about the
event historical event
Government documents about Newspaper article about the
a new policy new policy

Music recordings Academic book about the

musical style
Results of an opinion poll Blog post interpreting the
results of the poll

Empirical study Literature review that cites

the study
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary vs Secondary Sources:
Which is better?
Persuasive essays and argumentative essays
even speeches to persuade argue or inform
use primary and secondary sources. They
complement each other to help you build a
convincing argument or to prove a point.
Primary sources are more credible as
evidence, but secondary sources show how
your argument relates to existing facts.
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources
Remember:

To determine if something is used as a primary or

secondary source, there are some
simple questions you can ask yourself:

 Does this source come from someone directly involved in

the events (primary) or from another person (secondary)?
 Is it analyzing the source itself (primary) or is only using it
for background information (secondary)?
 Does the source provide original information (primary) or
does it comment upon information from other sources
(secondary)?
Judging the Validity of the Evidence Listened to /Read
Distinguishing Primary and Secondary Sources

Keep in mind that all primary and

secondary sources must be correctly
cited to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism- presenting work or ideas

from another source as your own,with
or without consent of the original author,
by incorporating it into your work without
full acknowledgement.