Primary vs. secondary sources

The materials, evidence, or data used in your research are known as sources. As foundations of your research, these sources of information are typically classified into two broad categories — primary and secondary.

Primary Sources

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person or work of art. Characteristically, primary sources are contemporary to the events and people described and show minimal or no mediation between the document/artifact and its creator. As to the format, primary source materials can be written and non-written, the latter including sound, picture, and artifact. Examples of primary sources include:

personal correspondence and diaries
works of art and literature
speeches and oral histories
audio and video recordings
photographs and posters
newspaper ads and stories
laws and legislative hearings
census or demographic records
plant and animal specimens
coins and tools

Secondary Sources

A secondary source, in contrast, lacks the immediacy of a primary record. As materials produced sometime after an event happened, they contain information that has been interpreted, commented, analyzed or processed in such a way that it no longer conveys the freshness of the original. History textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, interpretive journal articles, and book reviews are all examples of secondary sources. Secondary sources are often based on primary sources.

Primary and Secondary Sources Compared

An example from the printed press serves to further distinguish primary from secondary sources. In writing a narrative of the political turmoil surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election, a researcher will likely tap newspaper reports of that time for factual information on the events. The researcher will use these reports as primary sources because they offer direct or firsthand evidence of the events, as they first took place. A column in the Op/Ed section of a newspaper commenting on the election, however, is less likely to serve these purposes. In this case, a columnist’s analysis of the election controversy is considered to be a secondary source, primarily because it is not a close factual account or recording of the events.

Bear in mind, however, that primary and secondary sources are not fixed categories. The use of evidence as a primary or secondary source hinges on the type of research you are conducting. If the researcher of the 2000 presidential election were interested in people’s perceptions of the political and legal electoral controversy, the Op/Ed columns will likely be good primary sources for surveying public opinion of these landmark events.

The chart below illustrates possible uses of primary and secondary sources by discipline:

Discipline

Primary Source

Secondary Source

Archeology

farming tools

treatise on innovative analysis of Neolithic artifacts

Art

sketch book

conference proceedings on French Impressionists

History

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

book on the anti-slavery struggle

Journalism

interview

biography of publisher Katherine Meyer Graham

Law

legislative hearing

law review article on anti-terrorism legislation

Literature

novel

literary criticism on The Name of the Rose

Music

score of an opera

biography of composer Georges Bizet

Political Science

public opinion poll

newspaper article on campaign finance reform

Rhetoric

speech

editorial comment on Martin Luther King ’s “ I Have a Dream” speech

Sociology

voter registry

Ph.D. dissertation on Hispanic voting patterns

 

For more information see the Information Commons Undergraduate Services.

How to use primary sources:

Determine what the document is—who wrote it, why, when, who might have read it.

Determine whether it is primarily factual, personal, or a combination of the two.

Think about how the life situation or values of the writer might have shaped what s/he wrote.

Read between the lines:  what does this writer omit that might be important to understanding life in a particular period?  What biases or distortions might the writer have introduced?

Why to use primary sources:

They reinforce themes from secondary sources.

They provide a direct experience of the period.

They help you compare the writer's time period to other periods.

They can help you understand the different perspectives among various groups or participants in a particular period.

They can help you think like an historian.

How to use secondary sources:

Determine who wrote the document and when it was written.

As you read the secondary source, determine what kind of interpretation the author is placing on historical events. How does this interpretation differ from the interpretations of other authors?  

Pay attention to the kinds of evidence the author uses to support his/her interpretation.  How convincing is it?  Are there other possible interpretations?

Why to use secondary sources:

They show how others have thought about and interpreted past events.

They illustrate the major points of disagreement among historians in interpretations of the past.