Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

1. Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

2. Primary Sources • Contemporary accounts of an event written by the person who witnessed or experienced it first hand. • Original documents; not about another document or account. • Published works, as long as they are written during or soon after the fact and not as historical accounts.

3. Primary Sources include • Diaries • Letters • Memoirs • Journal • Speeches • Manuscripts • Statistical data • Interviews • Photographs • Audio/video recordings • Research reports • Art • Government documents • Original literary or theatrical works • Autobiographies • Artifacts • Maps

4. Examples of Primary Sources

5. Secondary Sources • Interpret primary sources; at least one step removed from the event or phenomenon under review. • Examination of studies that researchers made of a subject. • Secondhand accounts; conveys the experiences and opinions of others.

6. Secondary Sources include • Usually in the form of published works • Journal and magazine articles • Books • Biographies • Radio and TV documents

7. Examples of Secondary Sources

8. How do you know? Ask yourself... • How does the author know these details? • Was the author present at the event or soon on the scene? • Where does the information come from? Personal experience, eyewitness accounts or reports written by others? • Are the author’s conclusions based on a single piece of evidence, or have many sources been taken into account?

9. Primary or Secondary Sources? • Newspaper, magazine and journal articles can be a primary or secondary sources. • If the article was written at the time something happened, then it is a primary source. • Example: Articles written on Obama’s inauguration in 2009 are primary sources. However, if a reporter in 2012 wrote about Washington’s inauguration using information written by someone else in 1789, that would be a secondary source.

10. Questions??? Comments.... Contact Tracy Ponder at... 417.447.8173 pondert@otc.edu