What are Sources?
When I do my research for writing, it is essential that I know the
difference between a primary, secondary and tertiary source. These are
actually very simple categories to understand if you can connect with
their meanings.
What do I mean by that? Well, I want you to understand that nearly
every day of your life, when you write, do homework, or record
information "personally" you are creating a primary resource - like an
autobiographical record. Something that comes directly from your
mind, your life, your thoughts, your hand... to be recorded for others
to read, learn and understand.
A Secondary source is something that is removed from you, just one step
away, like an article written about you in a school newspaper or a
magazine. You might think of this as someone doing a biography
"about" you. Someone taking primary source information and
re-recording or interpreting that information in "their" words about
you.
They might quote you but they must indicate a direct quote in their
writing - so that the interpretation is still someone else's, words
about you - not yours.
A Tertiary source, now this funny word means that the information you
are reading is "at least" three steps away from the original author or
autobiography. This is a
piece of information about a piece of information and most tertiary
information you will find is in the form of reference books such as
dictionaries and encyclopedias.
Primary Sources
A primary source is an original document containing firsthand
information about a person or a topic.
This includes but is not limited to diaries, journals, personal
letters, business letters, original works of
art or thoughts, photographs,
works of literature, autobiographies, and anything else that is an
"original" from the hands of the creator.
Secondary Sources
A secondary source contains "comments" on or a discussion about a
primary source, offering an interpretation of the original information
gathered from a primary source.
This includes but is not limited to biographies, indexes and
bibliographies used to locate a secondary source, articles in
newspapers, newsletters, and basic magazines.
What can be confusing about sources is you MUST know what you are using
your research for because sometimes, the same source might be a primary
source for one research question and a secondary source for another.
It all depends on the relationship of the source you are
researching to the research question.
As an example, you might be researching Ann Frank, and if you read
Ann Frank: the diary of a young girl, by Ann Frank this would be a
primary source as it is the diary of Ann Frank, but if you read Ann
Frank's Story: her life retold for young children by Carol Ann Lee
you will be reading a secondary source.
On the other hand, if you were doing research on Carol Ann Lee
(author) and her writing style, this book would become a primary source
for your research question about her writing style.
It is all in the questions you ask.
Cycle of Information
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PRIMARY
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SECONDARY
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TERTIARY
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DEFINITIONS
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Sources that contain raw,
original, non interpreted and unevaluated information.
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Sources that digest,
analyze, evaluate and interpret the information contained
within primary sources. They tend to be argumentative.
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Sources that compile,
analyze, and digest secondary sources. They tend to be
factual.
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TIMING OF PUBLICATION CYCLE
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Primary sources tend to
come first in the publication cycle.
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Secondary sources tend to
come second in the publication cycle.
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Tertiary sources tend to
come last in the publication cycle.
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FORMATS--depends on the kind of analysis being
conducted.
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Often newspapers, weekly
and monthly-produced magazines; letters, diaries.
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Often scholarly
periodicals and books. (Professors like these.)
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Often reference books.
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EXAMPLE: Historian (studying the Vietnam
War)
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Newspaper articles,
weekly news magazines, monthly magazines, diaries,
correspondence, diplomatic records.
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Articles in scholarly
journals analyzing the war, possibly footnoting primary
documents; books analyzing the war.
|
Historical Dictionary of Vietnam ;The Vietnam War, An
Almanac
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Example: Literary Critic
(studying the literature of the Vietnam War)
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Novels, poems, plays,
diaries, correspondence.
|
Articles in scholarly
journals analyzing the literature; books analyzing the
literature; formal biographies of writers of the war.
|
Writing About Vietnam; A Bibliography of the Literature of
the Vietnam Conflict; Dictionary of Literary Biography
|
|
Example: Psychologist
(studying the effects of the Vietnam syndrome)
|
Article in a magazine
that reports research and its methodology; notes taken by a
clinical psychologist.
|
Articles in scholarly
publications synthesizing results of original research;
books analyzing results of original research.
|
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; The
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology
|
|
Example: Scientist
(studying Agent Orange
exposure)
|
Article in a magazine
reporting research and methodology.
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Articles in scholarly
publications synthesizing results of original research;
books doing same.
|
Agent Orange and Vietnam: An Annotated Bibliography
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Library of Congress Chart on Sources
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PRIMARY
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SECONDARY
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TERTIARY
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biography (only if it's
on an autobiographical record)
cases
correspondence
description and travel
diaries
fiction
interview
personal narrative
pictorial works
poetry
short stories
sources
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biography (only if it's
describing a biography--not an autobiography)
criticism and interpretation
history
history and criticism
government policy
law and legislation
moral and ethical aspects
political aspects
politics and government
psychological aspects
public opinion
religion
religious aspects
social policy
study and teaching
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abstracts
bibliography
bio-bibliography
chronology
classification
dictionaries
dictionaries and encyclopedias
directories
encyclopedias
guidebooks
handbooks, manuals, etc.
identification
indexes
registers
statistics
tables
index
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