Answered By: Carrie Pirmann
Last Updated: Jul 23, 2024    Views: 21

Primary sources are original documents, the first-hand accounts of a time period or an event. 

Types of primary sources include texts (letters, diaries, government reports, newspaper articles, novels, autobiographies), images (photographs, paintings, advertisements), artifacts (buildings, clothing, sculpture) and audio/visual (songs, oral history interviews, photos, films).

Primary sources may be available in their original form, or they may be reproduced, digitized, or reprinted in other sources.

Secondary sources are written about primary sources. Secondary sources include comments, interpretations, or discussions about the original material. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that evaluate or discuss others’ original research.

 

Examples:  Primary Sources

Examples: Secondary Sources

Art

original artworks, artifacts

article critiquing a piece of art

History

diaries, artifacts, speeches, maps, eyewitness accounts, laws, court cases, records of government agencies

book about a time period or event, an article about a supreme court case

Literature

poems, memoirs, autobiographies, original creative writing

biography of an author, an article that interprets a poem

Science or Social Sciences

empirical studies, research data, scientific experiments, public opinion polls, patents, census data, results of clinical trials

an article evaluating someone else’s original research, a literature review

Theater

plays, videotape of performances

biography of a playwright, review of a performance

 




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