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HST 101,102,103: U.S. History Courses: Primary & Secondary Sources

This guide will help you find resources for U.S. History courses HST 101, 102, 103 as a student at East Central College.

Primary & Secondary Sources

Primary source

A primary source is an original object or document -- the raw material or first-hand information, source material that is closest to what is being studied.

Primary sources vary by discipline and can include historical and legal documents, eye witness accounts, results of an experiment, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, and art objects. In the natural and social sciences, the results of an experiment or study are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences, so those articles and papers that present the original results are considered primary sources.   They are usually the first formal appearance of results in physical, print or electronic format and present original thinking, report a discovery, or share new information.

Common examples of a primary source are:

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

 

Secondary source

A secondary source is something written about a primary source. Secondary sources include comments on, interpretations of, or discussions about the original material. You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research.  They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence

Common examples of a secondary source are:

  • Biographies
  • Commentaries, criticisms
  • Dictionaries, Encyclopedias (also considered tertiary)
  • Dissertations
  • Histories
  • Indexes, Abstracts, Bibliographies (used to locate a secondary source)
  • Journal articles (depending on the disciple can be primary)
  • Magazine and newspaper articles (this distinction varies by discipline)
  • Monographs, other than fiction and autobiography
  • Textbooks (also considered tertiary)