There are three types of sources you might consult for your research projects:
| |
Primary sources |
Secondary sources |
Tertiary sources |
| What they are |
Evidence
|
Analysis
|
Overviews
|
| Examples |
- The texts you’re studying
- Documents that provide historical context (e.g. newspaper articles)
|
- SCHOLARLY analysis (books, journal articles)
- POPULAR analysis (magazines, some newspaper articles, some web articles)
|
|
| How they help you |
They provide evidence to support your statements. |
They tell you what other people think about your topic. |
They introduce you to new concepts and help you find citable sources -- but are not themselves citable. |
A good research strategy is to work backward -- that is, start with overviews (tertiary sources), which are easy to find, and use the clues in the tertiary sources to find secondary and primary sources.
