Week 4/ Mon-Tues., 21-22 March 2011
-
PRIMARY SOUCES VS SECONDARY SOURCES
-
TERTIARY SOURCES
-
RESEARCH VS REVIEW ARTICLES
A. DEFINITION
An original object or document –the raw material or first-hand information
A document or physical object which was written or created during the time under
study. These sources were present during
an experience or time period and offer an
inside view of particular event
B. TYPES OF PRIMARY SOURCES
1. ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or
translations acceptable): diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records, historical and legal documents, eye witness account, results of an experiment, statistical data
2. CREATIVE WORKS: poetry, drama, novels, music, art
3. RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: pottery, furniture, clothing, building
C. EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY SOURCES
o Diary of Anne Frank – Experiences of a Jewish family during WW II
o The Constitution of Canada – Canadian History
o A journal article reporting NEW research or findings
o Weaving and pottery – Native American history
o Plato’s Republic – Women in Ancient Greece
A. DEFINITION
Something written about a primary sources/
original materials; a second-hand information
These sources are one or more steps removed from the event
They include interpretations, analysis, discussions about and comments on the original materials
They may have pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them
B. TYPES OF SECONDARY SOURCES 1. PUBLICATIONS : textbooks, magazine
articles, histories, criticisms,
commentaries, encyclopedias, book or
movie reviews, articles found in scholarly
journals that evaluate or criticize someone
else’s original research
C. EXAMPLES OF SECONDARY SOURCES
o
A journal/ magazine article which interprets or reviews previous findings
o
A history textbook
o
A book about the effects of WW I
A. DEFINITION: sources that provide a short overview or brief summary of a topic, often digesting other sources or repackaging
ideas related to a specific topic
B. EXAMPLE: wikipedia entries, articles in encyclopedias, chapters in textbooks
C. NOTE:
- No need to include an encyclopedia article in a final bibliography
- Cannot be used as sources in a thesis
Scientific and other peer reviewed journals are excellent sources for primary research
sources. However, not every article in those journals will be research articles. Some will include book reviews and other materials that are more obviously secondary sources.
More difficult to differentiate from original research articles are review articles. Both types of articles will end with a list of
References (or Works Cited)
They often as lengthy or even longer than
original research articles. What the authors of review articles are doing is analyzing
and evaluating current research and
investigations related to a specific topic, field, or problem.
They are not primary sources since they
review previously published materials.
They can be identified by a commonly used format. If an article contains the following
elements, you can count on it being a primary research article:
a. Abstract b. Methods c. Results
d. Discussion
NOTE: the abstract is a sign that it is a primary research article. It is a review article if there is no abstract.
