Bertrand FAQ

Primary sources are first-hand accounts on a topic. What they look like varies from one discipline to another.

• History: Primary sources include  diaries, manuscripts, maps, images, drawings, and memoirs, and are created by those who participated in or witnessed past events. They help provide the tools and evidence to interpret the past. 
• In other arts & humanities: Primary sources include creative works such as novels, works of art, and films, which students and scholars analyze and interpret.
• In sciences and social sciences: Primary sources are first-hand accounts of experiments within the discipline, such as laboratory research, field research, and surveys, just to name a few. They are most often reported in articles with a particular format which includes sections for a literature review, methodology, and results.

Reading and evaluating primary source materials helps us understand an author’s interpretation of experiments, creative works, and past events, and is influenced by the authors’ opinions and biases. Regardless of the discipline, primary sources are at the heart of each academic subject we study.

Of course, you would go about reading and evaluating a diary, a novel, and a scientific article quite differently, so critical thinking is very important when working with primary sources. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help evaluate a primary source:

• What is the tone?
• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the purpose of the publication?
• What assumptions does the author make?
• What are the bases of the author's conclusions?
• Does the author agree or disagree with other authors of the subject, if any are referenced?
• Does the content agree with what you know or have learned about the issue?
• Where was the source made? (questions of systemic bias)

Keep in mind that primary sources may be fragmented or include methodologies and statistics that you do not understand. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance from a librarian or your professor.