Primary and secondary sources

Primary and Secondary Sources

By; Samuel Chan 

Primary and secondary sources

• Primary sources provide a first-hand account of an event or time period and are considered to be authoritative.

• They represent original thinking, reports on discoveries or events, or they can share new information.

• Often these sources are created at the time the events occurred but they can also include sources that are created later.

• They are usually the first formal appearance of original research.

Multiple Choice

Examples of primary resources include:

• diaries

• birth certificates

• constitutions

• all

Multiple Choice

Which of these is not a primary source of information?

• interviews

• speeches

• political commentary

• oral histories

Secondary sources

• Secondary sources offer an analysis, interpretation or a restatement of primary sources and are considered to be persuasive.

• They often involve generalisation, synthesis, interpretation, commentary or evaluation in an attempt to convince the reader of the creator's argument.

• They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources.

Multiple Choice

Which of these would not be considered an examples of secondary sources?

• original documents e.g. birth certificates

• journal articles that comment on or analyse research

• newspaper editorial/opinion pieces

• textbooks