Primary sources are original, firsthand documents or data, such as interviews, speeches, photographs, or original research articles. They provide direct evidence about the topic you’re studying. Secondary sources, on the other hand, analyze, interpret, or summarize primary sources. Examples include textbooks, reviews, and most books about a topic.
What are Primary & Secondary Sources?
Wheel of Sources
What are Primary & Secondary Sources of Information?
observers. They make a personal connection to the past. Examples: Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, wills, interviews, autobiographies, official records, news film footage, government documents. One must carefully evaluate and interpret those sources to understand their value and limitations.
Primary sources are typically historical documents or creative works like:
To determines whether or not an item is a primary source, ask how soon, after the event, the information was recorded.
2. Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources. A secondary source is one that was created later by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. Secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles.
Also included would be reference sources like encyclopedias.This includes publications like history books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies. A good secondary source uses primary sources as evidence.
What is a Primary Source? - Further Information!
Primary Sources: What Are They?
- National History Daydefines primary sources as follows:
Primary sources are materials directly related to a topic by time or participation. These materials include letters, speeches, diaries, newspaper articles from the time, oral history interviews, documents, photographs, artifacts, or anything else that provides firsthand accounts about a person or event.
Some materials might be considered primary sources for one topic but not for another. For example, a newspaper article about D-Day (which was June 6, 1944) written in June 1944 was likely written by a participant or eyewitness and would be a primary source; an article about D-Day written in June 2001 probably was not written by an eyewitness or participant and would not be a primary source.
Similarly, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered soon after the 1863 battle, is a primary source for the Civil War, but a speech given on the 100th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg in 1963 is not a primary source for the Civil War. If, however, the topic was how Americans commemorate the Civil War, then the 100th anniversary speech would be a primary source for that topic. - Primary Sources: What Are They?What is a primary source? Primary sources are materials directly related to a topic by time or participation. These materials include letters, speeches, diaries, newspaper articles from the time, oral history interviews, documents, photographs, artifacts, or anything else that provides firsthand accounts about a person or event.
- Secondary Sources: What Are They?In contrast, a secondary source of information is one that was created later by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. For the purposes of a historical research project, secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles. Also included would be reference sources like encyclopedias.