What is the difference between a primary source and a secondary source?
Answer
Primary Sources
Primary sources provide the raw data you use to support your arguments. Some common types of primary resources include manuscripts, diaries, court cases, maps, data sets, experiment results, news stories, polls, or original research. In many cases what makes a primary resource is contextual. For example, a biography about Abraham Lincoln is a secondary resource about Lincoln. However, if examined as a piece of evidence about the nature of biographical writing, or as an example of the biographer's writing method it becomes a primary resource.
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources analyze primary sources, using primary source materials to answer research questions. Secondary sources may analyze, criticize, interpret or summarize data from primary sources. The most common secondary resources are books, journal articles, or reviews of the literature. Secondary sources may also be primary sources. For example if someone studies the nature of literary criticism in the 19th century then a literary critique from the 19th century becomes a primary resource.
|
Discipline |
Primary Sources |
Secondary Sources |
|
Anthropology, Archeology |
Articles describing research, ethnographies, surveys, cultural and historical artifacts |
Reviews of the literature, critical interpretations of scholarly studies |
|
Communications, Journalism |
News (print, radio, TV, online), photographs, blogs, social media sites |
Interpretive journal articles, books and blogs about the communications industry |
|
Education, Political Science, Public Policy |
Government publications, laws, court cases, speeches, test results, interviews, polls, surveys |
Reviews of the literature, critical interpretations of scholarly studies |
|
Fine Arts |
Original art work, photographs, recordings of performances and music, scripts (film, theater, television), music scores, interviews, memoirs, diaries, letters |
Critical interpretations of art and artists – biographies, reviews, recordings of live performances |
|
History |
Government publications, newspapers, photographs, diaries, letters, manuscripts, business records, court cases, videos, polls, census data, speeches |
Interpretive journal articles and books |
|
Language and Literature |
Novels, plays, short stories, poems, dictionaries, language materials |
Literary criticism, biographies, reviews, text books |
|
Psychology, Sociology, Economics |
Articles describing research, experiment results, ethnographies, interviews, surveys, data sets |
Reviews of the literature, critical interpretations of scholarly studies |
|
Sciences |
Articles describing research and methodologies, documentation of lab research, research studies |
Publications about the significance of esearch or experiments |