ENG 101: English Comp (Tovar): Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary and Secondary Examples

Primary vs Secondary

What is a primary source?

The original document, work of art, lab report, interview, etc. There has been no evaluation or interpretations of the material. It’s what research is based off of.

Examples:

• Artifacts (e.g. coins, plant specimens, fossils, furniture, tools, clothing, all from the time under study);
• Audio recordings (e.g. radio programs)
• Diaries;
• Internet communications on email, listservs;
• Interviews (e.g., oral histories, telephone, e-mail);
• Journal articles published in peer-reviewed publications;
• Letters;
• Newspaper articles written at the time;
• Original Documents (i.e. birth certificate, will, marriage license, trial transcript);
• Patents;
• Photographs
• Proceedings of Meetings, conferences and symposia;
• Records of organizations, government agencies (e.g. annual report, treaty, constitution, government document);
• Speeches;
• Survey Research (e.g., market surveys, public opinion polls);
• Video recordings (e.g. television programs);
• Works of art, architecture, literature, and music (e.g., paintings, sculptures, musical scores, buildings, novels, poems).

http://www.lib.umd.edu/special/research/​

What is a secondary source?

Secondary sources are written about the primary sources. They are written after the fact, as commentary or discussion of the primary source.

Examples include:

• Bibliographies;
• Biographical works;
• Commentaries, criticisms;
• Dictionaries, Encyclopedias ;
• Histories;
• Journal articles;
• Magazine and newspaper articles ;
• Monographs, other than fiction and autobiography;
• Textbooks;
• Web site (also considered primary).

http://www.lib.umd.edu/special/research/define/secondary.html​

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