Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Any material produced by eyewitnesses or participants in an event, historical moment, or original research.

What is a Primary Source?

Primary Source ExamplesPhotographs Artifacts, ClothingDiaries VideosAutobiographies MapsInterviews SpeechesLetters Government DocumentsAdvertisements Original researchA journal article reporting NEW findingsCreative works – poetry, drama, music, art

Secondary sources summarize, explain, comment on, or draw conclusions from primary sources. They are accounts of the past created by people writing about events after the event.

What is a Secondary Source?

Secondary Source ExamplesTextbooks CriticismsEncyclopedias Commentaries/

DocumentariesMagazine articles ReportsA book about… A journal which interprets

previous findings

Primary SourceScore Card from

1919 World Series

Photograph of Charlie Chaplin on a movie set

Interview excerpt with Jackie Robinson

The book Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinov

Biography of Charlie Chaplin

Movie titled 42 about Jackie Robinson

Compare: Primary vs. Secondary

Secondary Source

Did the information come from personal experience?

Did the author conduct original research on the project?

Is the information uninterpreted data or statistics?

Is the source an original document or a creative interpretation?

Questions to Ask When Determining if Something is a Primary Source:

Primary SourcesPhotographsDiaries/JournalsAutobiographiesInterviewsLettersAdvertisementsArtifacts/ClothingSpeechesGovernment DocumentsOriginal researchA journal article reporting NEW findingsCreative works – poetry, drama, music art

Secondary SourcesTextbooksEncyclopediasMagazine ArticlesCriticismsCommentaries/DocumentariesReportsA journal article that interprets previous findingsA book about…

Primary and Secondary Source Examples

Characteristics of a scholarly journal Keywords: Abstract,

Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion