History Guide

What the difference between a primary, secondary, and tertiary source?

• Primary sources are created as close to the original event or phenomenon as it is possible to be. For example, a photograph or video of an event is a primary source. Data from an experiment is a primary source.
• Secondary sources are one step removed from that. Secondary sources are based on or about the primary sources. For example, articles and books in which authors interpret data from another research team's experiment or archival footage of an event are usually considered secondary sources.
• Tertiary sources are one further step removed from that. Tertiary sources summarize or synthesize the research in secondary sources. For example, textbooks and reference books are tertiary sources (Text in this section is from Suny Empire College's guide: Research Skills Tutorial).

Why is this important?

• For your research assignments, you are asked to find primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. You'll need to be able to recognize the difference between all three. Remember primary sources are about the event. Secondary sources analyze the event and interpret another author's work. Tertiary sources summarize events from other authors after the event has occurred. 

Scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles are written by scholars of a particular subject, whom are considered experts in their field.

• Tip: Scholarly articles usually have an abstract (description of what you'll find in the article), charts/graphs, and a full biography or citation list.

Substantive news articles are reliable sources of information on events of the day/time or issues of concern for the general public or world. Articles from these sources are usually vetted (or double-checked) for credibility. 

• Tip: Substantive new articles included a date and time posted with a byline (name of the writer of the article) at the top of the article. If a correction is made to the article, it will include a revision date and time. The correction is noted fully at the bottom of the article.

Popular articles are articles relating to entertainment for the general public, usually these articles are produced by corporations for profit.

• Tip: Popular articles include advertisements (ads), usually, more ads than articles. These ads and the articles themselves are colorful Revisions are noted with date and time, but corrections aren't often noted. The byline is included at the bottom of the articles.

Tabloids "articles" relate to entertainment news but are used to generate a reaction from the general public. These "articles" are often false. 

• Tip: No byline is included. No sources. Often linked to an opinion on a current social issue, no other sources mentioned.

An annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following.

Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is.

Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?

Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic? (OWL Purdue).

Video Credit: History Skills, 2019.