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 SOURCES1. 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 SOURCESo Diary of Anne Frank – Experiences of a

Jewish family during WW IIo The Constitution of Canada – Canadian

Historyo A journal article reporting NEW research or

findingso Weaving and pottery – Native American

historyo 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 SOURCES1. 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 textbooko 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. Abstractb. Methodsc. Resultsd. Discussion

NOTE: the abstract is a sign that it is a primary research article. It is a review article if there is no abstract.