Primary and Secondary Sources Review Quiz

What are primary sources?

• Materials that provide second-hand evidence of attitudes

• Materials that help interpret and analyze primary sources

• Materials created by people directly connected to the topic

What are secondary sources?

• Materials that help interpret and analyze primary sources

• Materials created by people directly connected to the topic

• Materials that provide first-hand evidence of attitudes

If you're researching the 1920s, which would be a primary sources?

• A book entitled The Roaring 1920s written in 2003.

• A scholarly article from 1995.

• A newspaper editorial from 1927.

• A webpage.

Answer explanation

Primary sources are original documents created or experienced contemporaneously with the event being researched.

If you're researching World War Two, which would be a secondary source?

• A book entitled World War II from 1995.

• A speech given during World War Two.

• An interview with a soldier.

• A picture from a battle.

Answer explanation

Generally speaking, secondary sources are written well after the events that are being researched.

How could a journal article about the history of immigration be considered a primary source?

• When you are studying living conditions faced by immigrants

• When you are studying attitudes about immigration

• When you are studying how scholars have discussed immigration

Answer explanation

A journal article can be a primary source when studying the language used by scholars and the ways scholars spoke about a specific topic.

What determines the status of a source as primary or secondary?

• The topic of source

• The format of the source

• The intended use of the source

Which one is NOT a primary sources?

• The Declaration of Independence

• Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech

• A biography of Abraham Lincoln from 2012

• A cartoon from 1885

Which one is NOT a secondary sources?

• The History of Baseball (Oxford University Press, 2001)

• A map drawn by Christopher Columbus

• "Life in Colonial Virginia," History Journal, 2012

• A newspaper article about the Civil War, published in 1999

Answer explanation