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FSEM 100R4: Forbidden Texts

Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources

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)

 
  • Wikipedia
  • Library encyclopedias
  • AI chatbots
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.