thesis is secondary source

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Primary vs Secondary

• Original Documents at Kemp Library

A primary source is an original work created during or around the event being studied. A primary source is not interpretive. It will not examine events as they happen (For example a primary source from the French Revolution might tell you about the events of the day that Marie Antoinette was killed, but it won't talk about the socio-economic impact of her death.)

Examples of Primary Sources:

• Government Documents (such as a piece of legislation)
• Newspaper Articles
• Photographs

The Kemp Library at East Stroudsburg University is a selective depository for United States government documents.

Please visit this guide  for extensive information regarding using Government Documents at ESU.

A secondary source interprets primary sources and the original historical event. It specifically examines events for some sort of (often scholarly) purpose. Secondary sources are usually created much later than the original event in question.

Examples of Secondary Sources:

• Documentaries
• Journal Articles

The library keeps back issues on microfilm for

• The New York Times
• Philadelphia Inquirer
• Pocono Record
• Times Educational and Literary Supplements
• Wall Street Journal

We also have periodicals like The New Yorker, The New Republic , and The Nation . Also take a look at some of our newspaper/periodical indexes and collections in our reference section and online. We have several copies of original writings in the collection as well.

Alternative Press Index:  This resource is a bibliographic print index containing citations of journal , newspaper and magazine articles from hundreds of international alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Born of the New Left, this resource was launched in 1969 to provide access to the emerging theories and practices of radical social change.

Underground Newspaper Microfilm Collection : The radical movements of the 1960s spawned a multitude of underground newspapers. The causes they espoused or opposed were as diverse as the issues they confronted. It was the era of the Vietnam War, of opposition to corporate America and its power, of questioning and rejecting traditional values. Access to more than 550 underground newspapers dating from 1963 to 1985.

Primary vs Secondary Visual

Primary Vs Secondary Sources

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Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources

What they are and how they compare (with examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewed By: Kerryn Warren (PhD) | January 2023

If you’re new to the wild world of research, you’re bound to encounter the terrible twins, “ primary source ” and “ secondary source ” sooner or later. With any luck, “ tertiary sources ” will get thrown into the mix too! In this post, we’ll unpack both what this terminology means and how to apply it to your research project.

Overview: Source Types

• Primary sources
• Examples of primary sources
• Pros and cons of primary data
• Secondary sources
• Examples of secondary sources
• Pros and cons of secondary data
• Tertiary sources
• Summary & recap

What are primary sources?

Simply put, primary sources (also referred to as primary data) are the original raw materials, evidence or data collected in a study. Primary sources can include interview transcripts , quantitative survey data, as well as other media that provide firsthand accounts of events or phenomena. Primary sources are often considered to be the purest sources because they provide direct, unfiltered data which has not been processed or interpreted in any way.

In addition to the above, examples of primary sources can include

• Results from a social media poll
• Letters written by a historical figure
• Photographs taken during a specific time period
• Government documents such as birth certificates and census records
• Artefacts like clothing and tools from past cultures

Naturally, working with primary data has both benefits and drawbacks. Some of the main advantages include

• Purity : primary sources provide firsthand accounts of events, ideas, and experiences, which means you get access to the rawest, purest form of data.
• Perspective : primary sources allow you to gain a deeper understanding of the perspectives of the people who created them, providing insights into how different groups of people viewed an event or phenomenon.
• Richness : primary data often provide a wealth of detail and nuance that can be missed in secondary data (we’ll cover that shortly). This can provide you with a more complete and nuanced understanding of their topic.

On the flip side, some of the main disadvantages include

• Bias : given their “rawness”, primary sources can often contain biases that can skew or limit your understanding of the issue at hand.
• Inaccessibility : sometimes, collecting fresh primary data can be difficult or even impossible. For example, photographs held in private collections or letters written in a language that you’re not fluent in.
• Fragility : physical artefacts such as manuscripts may be fragile and require special handling, which can make them difficult for you to access or study.
• Limited scope : primary sources often only provide a glimpse of a particular event, person, or period of time, so you may need to rely on multiple primary sources to gain a more complete understanding of a topic.

As you can see, the strengths and weaknesses of primary sources are oftentimes two sides of the same coin . For example, primary data allow you to gain insight into peoples’ unique perspectives, but at the same time, it bakes in a significant level of each participant’s personal bias. So, it’s important to carefully consider what your research aim is and whether it lends itself to this type of data source.

Now that you’ve got a clearer picture of what primary sources/data are, let’s take a look at secondary sources.

What are secondary sources?

Secondary sources are materials that provide an analysis or interpretation of primary sources (primary data). For example, secondary sources of information can include books, journal articles and documentaries . Unlike primary sources (which are raw and uninterpreted), secondary sources provide a distilled, interpreted view of the data.

Other examples of secondary sources include

• A book that provides an analysis of an event
• A biography of a pop icon
• An article that provides an interpretation of a public opinion poll
• A blog post that reviews and compares the performance of competing products

As with primary sources, secondary sources have their own set of pros and cons. Some of the main advantages include:

• Convenience: secondary sources are often easier to access and use than primary sources, as they are widely available in libraries, journal databases, etc.
• Interpretation and synthesis : secondary sources provide a synthesis of the topic of interest, which can help you to quickly understand the most important takeaways from a data set.
• Time-saving : secondary sources can save you time, as you don’t need to analyse primary sources yourself – you can just read summaries or interpretations provided by experts in the field.

At the same time, it’s important to be aware of the disadvantages of secondary sources. Some of the main ones to consider are

• Distance from original sources : secondary sources are based on primary data, but the information has been filtered through the lens of the author, which will naturally carry some level of bias and perhaps even a hidden agenda.
• Limited context: secondary sources may not provide the same level of contextual information or detail as primary sources, which can limit your understanding of the situation and contribute toward a warped understanding.
• Inaccuracies : since secondary sources are the product of human efforts, they may contain inaccuracies or errors, especially if the author has misinterpreted primary data.
• Outdated information : secondary sources may be based on primary sources that are no longer valid or accurate, or they may not take into account more recent research or discoveries.

It’s important to mention that primary and secondary data are not mutually exclusive . In other words, it doesn’t always need to be one or the other. Secondary sources can be used to supplement primary data by providing additional information or context for a particular topic.

For example, if you were researching Martin Luther King Jr., your primary source could be transcripts of the speeches he gave during the civil rights movement. To supplement this information, you could then use secondary sources such as biographies written about him or newspaper articles from the time period in which he was active.

So, once again, it’s important to think about what you’re trying to achieve with your research – that is to say, what are your research aims? As with all methodological choices, your decision to make use of primary or secondary data (or both), needs to be informed by your overall research aims .

Before we wrap up though, it’s important to look at one more source type – tertiary sources.

Need a helping hand?

What are tertiary sources?

Last but not least, we’ve got tertiary sources . Simply put, tertiary sources are materials that provide a general overview of a topic . They often summarise or synthesise information from a combination of primary and secondary sources, such as books, articles, and other documents.

Some examples of tertiary sources include

• Encyclopedias
• Study guides
• Dictionaries

Tertiary sources can be useful when you’re just starting to learn about a completely new topic , as they provide an overview of the subject matter without getting too in-depth into specific details. For example, if you’re researching the history of World War II, but don’t know much about it yet, reading an encyclopedia article (or Wikipedia article) on the war would be helpful in providing you with some basic facts and background information.

Tertiary sources are also useful in terms of providing a starting point for citations to primary and secondary source material which can help guide your search for more detailed, credible information on a particular topic. Additionally, these types of resources may also contain lists of related topics or keywords which you can use to find more information regarding your topic of interest.

Importantly, while tertiary sources are a valuable starting point for your research, they’re not ideal sources to cite in your dissertation, thesis or research project. Instead, you should aim to cite high-quality, credible secondary sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles and research papers . So, remember to only use tertiary sources as a starting point. Don’t make the classic mistake of citing Wikipedia as your main source!

Let’s recap

In this post, we’ve explored the trinity of sources: primary, secondary and tertiary.

• Primary sources include the original raw evidence or data that you collect yourself in a study. For example, interview transcripts or statistical data.
• Secondary sources include distilled analyses and interpretations of primary data that someone else collected in their study. For example, journal articles and critical analysis pieces.
• Tertiary sources include materials that provide a general overview of a topic. For example, encyclopedias, study guides and handbooks.
• Each source type has its own set of strengths and weaknesses , and can play a different role within a research project.
• Primary sources and secondary sources are not necessarily mutually exclusive – they can work together to provide a comprehensive view.
• It’s important to ensure that your choice of source (or sources) is guided by and aligned with your research aims .

If you’d like to learn more about primary and secondary research, be sure to check out the rest of the Grad Coach blog here . Alternatively, if you’re looking for hands-on help with your project, take a look at our 1-on-1 private coaching service .

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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Methodology

• What is Secondary Research? | Definition, Types, & Examples

What is Secondary Research? | Definition, Types, & Examples

Published on January 20, 2023 by Tegan George . Revised on January 12, 2024.

Secondary research is a research method that uses data that was collected by someone else. In other words, whenever you conduct research using data that already exists, you are conducting secondary research. On the other hand, any type of research that you undertake yourself is called primary research .

Secondary research can be qualitative or quantitative in nature. It often uses data gathered from published peer-reviewed papers, meta-analyses, or government or private sector databases and datasets.

Table of contents

When to use secondary research, types of secondary research, examples of secondary research, advantages and disadvantages of secondary research, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

Secondary research is a very common research method, used in lieu of collecting your own primary data. It is often used in research designs or as a way to start your research process if you plan to conduct primary research later on.

Since it is often inexpensive or free to access, secondary research is a low-stakes way to determine if further primary research is needed, as gaps in secondary research are a strong indication that primary research is necessary. For this reason, while secondary research can theoretically be exploratory or explanatory in nature, it is usually explanatory: aiming to explain the causes and consequences of a well-defined problem.

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Secondary research can take many forms, but the most common types are:

Statistical analysis

Literature reviews, case studies, content analysis.

There is ample data available online from a variety of sources, often in the form of datasets. These datasets are often open-source or downloadable at a low cost, and are ideal for conducting statistical analyses such as hypothesis testing or regression analysis .

Credible sources for existing data include:

• The government
• Government agencies
• Non-governmental organizations
• Educational institutions
• Businesses or consultancies
• Libraries or archives
• Newspapers, academic journals, or magazines

A literature review is a survey of preexisting scholarly sources on your topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant themes, debates, and gaps in the research you analyze. You can later apply these to your own work, or use them as a jumping-off point to conduct primary research of your own.

Structured much like a regular academic paper (with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion), a literature review is a great way to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject. It is usually qualitative in nature and can focus on  a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. A case study is a great way to utilize existing research to gain concrete, contextual, and in-depth knowledge about your real-world subject.

You can choose to focus on just one complex case, exploring a single subject in great detail, or examine multiple cases if you’d prefer to compare different aspects of your topic. Preexisting interviews , observational studies , or other sources of primary data make for great case studies.

Content analysis is a research method that studies patterns in recorded communication by utilizing existing texts. It can be either quantitative or qualitative in nature, depending on whether you choose to analyze countable or measurable patterns, or more interpretive ones. Content analysis is popular in communication studies, but it is also widely used in historical analysis, anthropology, and psychology to make more semantic qualitative inferences.

Secondary research is a broad research approach that can be pursued any way you’d like. Here are a few examples of different ways you can use secondary research to explore your research topic .

Secondary research is a very common research approach, but has distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of secondary research

Advantages include:

• Secondary data is very easy to source and readily available .
• It is also often free or accessible through your educational institution’s library or network, making it much cheaper to conduct than primary research .
• As you are relying on research that already exists, conducting secondary research is much less time consuming than primary research. Since your timeline is so much shorter, your research can be ready to publish sooner.
• Using data from others allows you to show reproducibility and replicability , bolstering prior research and situating your own work within your field.

Disadvantages of secondary research

Disadvantages include:

• Ease of access does not signify credibility . It’s important to be aware that secondary research is not always reliable , and can often be out of date. It’s critical to analyze any data you’re thinking of using prior to getting started, using a method like the CRAAP test .
• Secondary research often relies on primary research already conducted. If this original research is biased in any way, those research biases could creep into the secondary results.

Many researchers using the same secondary research to form similar conclusions can also take away from the uniqueness and reliability of your research. Many datasets become “kitchen-sink” models, where too many variables are added in an attempt to draw increasingly niche conclusions from overused data . Data cleansing may be necessary to test the quality of the research.

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If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• Mixed methods research
• Non-probability sampling
• Quantitative research
• Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Research bias

• Rosenthal effect
• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Selection bias
• Negativity bias
• Status quo bias

A systematic review is secondary research because it uses existing research. You don’t collect new data yourself.

The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .

• If you want to measure something or test a hypothesis , use quantitative methods . If you want to explore ideas, thoughts and meanings, use qualitative methods .
• If you want to analyze a large amount of readily-available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how it is generated, collect primary data.
• If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables , use experimental methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use descriptive methods.

Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings.

Quantitative methods allow you to systematically measure variables and test hypotheses . Qualitative methods allow you to explore concepts and experiences in more detail.

Sources in this article

We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.

George, T. (2024, January 12). What is Secondary Research? | Definition, Types, & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved September 18, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/secondary-research/

Largan, C., & Morris, T. M. (2019). Qualitative Secondary Research: A Step-By-Step Guide (1st ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Peloquin, D., DiMaio, M., Bierer, B., & Barnes, M. (2020). Disruptive and avoidable: GDPR challenges to secondary research uses of data. European Journal of Human Genetics , 28 (6), 697–705. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-020-0596-x

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Using and Evaluating Sources

• Introduction
• Academic and Professional Papers

What Is a Primary or Secondary Source?

Why is it important to use primary sources, does that mean i should only use primary sources, what does that mean to me as a student or researcher at illinois tech.

• Guide License
• Evaluating Scholarly Sources
• Evaluating 'Popular' or Non-Scholarly Sources
• Misinformtion & Fact Checking
• Incorporating Sources into your Paper

Paul V. Galvin Library

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At its simplest, a primary source is an account of something that happened by the people who were there, such as participants or witnesses. A secondary source is an account of something that happened by people who were NOT there, often framed as a review, summary, or analysis. Technically, a secondary source is a review or analysis of primary sources—there’s also what’s called a tertiary source, that analyzes secondary sources, and so on.

Simply put, people make mistakes. There’s an old party game called Telephone where a phrase is whispered from one person to the next around the room and at the end of the game, everybody is amused at how the phrase or its meaning has changed. Using secondary, tertiary, or other sources is like playing Telephone with your research. Reviews and other secondary accounts are summaries, so even at their best they omit parts of the original research and lack the detail and nuance of the original paper. At worst, a review author could entirely misunderstand or misrepresent the original research.

No, not at all. For older, well-established research that’s had ample time to be reviewed and consolidated into the general knowledge of the field, there’s no need to go back to primary source material unless you’re challenging the conventional interpretation.

The most common type of primary source used at Illinois Tech is the research paper written by the researcher(s) who actually carried out the work. These papers are typically published as articles in peer-reviewed journals but could also be in the form of a thesis or dissertation, research report, case study, clinical trial, etc. In addition to written reports, various ancillary materials can be primary sources. These include data, surveys, questionnaires, interviews, computer code, images, and other supporting materials that were generated or collected as part of the work.

Secondary sources may be published in peer-reviewed journals as well but most often occur in popular media, like websites, blogs, newspapers, etc. Secondary sources in peer-reviewed journals are easy to identify because they use the word “review” in the title or abstract and don’t present any new research. Also considered as secondary sources are any ancillary materials that were re-used or repurposed from other research.

Interestingly, primary source research papers almost always include a review of prior research as part of the introduction or as a “literature review” section. The primary source material only includes those parts that talk about the new research: the methodology, results, discussion of results, conclusions, or other similar sections.

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Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources.

Primary sources are original materials on which research is based. They are firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under consideration. They present information in its original form, neither interpreted nor condensed nor evaluated by other writers.

Whether a source if primary can be determined by the way it is being used by the researcher. For example, a speech about the Declaration of Independence that was delivered by a noted statesman on its hundredth anniversary would be secondary source for a scholar studying the document’s philosophical origins. But it would be a primary source for a scholar studying how the Declaration’s meaning has changed for Americans over time. Examples:

• Newspaper articles (reporting events)
• Photographs
• Interviews (legal proceedings, personal, telephone, e-mail)
• Correspondence
• Trial transcripts
• Fiction, poems, music
• Experimental results
• Autobiographies, personal narratives, memoirs
• Manuscripts

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources offer interpretation or analysis based on primary sources. They may explain primary sources and often uses them to support a specific thesis or argument or to persuade the reader to accept a certain point of view. Such works are one or more steps removed from the event—being written with the benefit of hindsight.

• Journal articles
• Encyclopedias
• Dissertations
• Research analysis
• Works of criticism and interpretation
• Newspaper articles (analyzing news)

Differentiating between primary and secondary sources

• Time of publication. Material written close to the time of the event is often primary material. For instance, a diary written a women traveling on the Oregon Trail is primary material as is an article in the newspaper at the time of her arrival in Portland. However, a contemporary article about the hardships of the trip along the Trail would be secondary material.
• Purpose of the material. An article, book, essay, etc. written with an analytical or persuasive point of view is secondary. The latest population data for New York Counties are primary material; an article describing trends and analyzing the data is secondary.
• Context of the researching scholar. Primary materials for a critic studying the literature of Desert Storm, the first Iraq War, differ significantly from primary materials for a physician studying the health problems of the soldiers in that war. The critic’s primary materials are the stories, poems, songs of the era. The physician would study the soldiers’ medical records.
• Primary and secondary sources are not fixed categories. The use of evidence as primary or secondary is determined by the type of research you are conducting.

Definitions for primary and secondary resources vary from discipline to discipline, check with your professor for help specific to your assignment or discipline.

Some comparative examples of primary and secondary sources:

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources: A Quick Guide: Secondary Sources

• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tertiary Sources

What is a Secondary Source?

Secondary sources are books, periodicals, web sites, etc. that people write using the information from primary sources. They are not written by eyewitnesses to events, for instance, but use eyewitness accounts, photographs, diaries and other primary sources to reconstruct events or to support a writer's thesis about the events and their meaning. Many books you find in the Cornell Library Catalog are secondary sources.

Reference Help

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Reference List: Other Print Sources

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Note:  This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style  can be found here .

Important Note: Because the 7 th edition of the APA Publication Manual heavily emphasizes digital and electronic sources, it does not contain explicit instructions for certain less-common print sources that earlier editions covered. For this reason, some of the examples below have been adapted from the instructions for sources with similar attributes (e.g., the conference proceedings example is derived from the instructions the 7 th edition manual gives for citing edited collections). Every example below that has been adapted in this way is accompanied by a note explaining how it was adapted.

Please also note: While this resource contains many examples of citations for uncommon print sources that we think are helpful, it may not account for every possibility. For even more examples of how to cite uncommon print sources, please refer to the 7 th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

Entry in a Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with a Group Author

The 7 th edition of the APA manual does not provide specific guidance on how to cite physical reference works such as dictionaries, thesauruses, or encyclopedias. Therefore, this citation, as well as the one for an individual author of an entry in a reference work, is modeled on that of a chapter in an edited book or anthology, both which are similar in format to reference works.

Institution or organization name. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of reference work (edition, page numbers). Publisher name.

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. (1997). Goat. In Merriam Webster’s collegiate dictionary (10 th ed., pp. 499-500). Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

Entry in a Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with an Individual Author

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of entry. In F. M. Lastname (ed.), Title of reference work (edition, page numbers). Publisher.

Tatum, S. R. (2009). Spirituality and religion in hip hop literature and culture. In T. L. Stanley (ed.), Encyclopedia of hip hop literature (pp. 250-252). Greenwood.

Work Discussed in a Secondary Source

Provide the source in which the original work was referenced:

Nail, T. (2017). What is an assemblage? SubStance , 46 (1), 21-37. http://sub.uwpress.org/lookup/doi/10.3368/ss.46.1.21

Note: Provide the secondary source in the references list; in the text, name the original work, and give a citation for the secondary source. For example, if Deleuze and Guattari’s work is cited in Nail and you did not read the original work, list the Nail reference in the References. In the text, use the following citation: 

Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the assemblage (as cited in Nail, 2017)….

Dissertation Abstract

The 7 th edition of the APA manual does not provide specific guidance on how to cite dissertation abstracts. Therefore, this citation models that of a journal article, which is similar in format.

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation. Dissertation Abstracts International , Vol., Page.

Angeli, E. L. (2012). Networks of communication in emergency medical services. Dissertation Abstracts International, 74 , 03(E).

Dissertation or Master’s Thesis, Published

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation/thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation/Master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding the Degree]. Database or Archive Name.

Angeli, E. L. (2012). Networks of communication in emergency medical services (Publication No. 3544643) [Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Note: If the dissertation or thesis is not published in a database, include the URL of the site where the document is located.

Dissertation or Master’s Thesis, Unpublished

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation/thesis [Unpublished doctoral dissertation/master’s thesis]. Name of Institution Awarding the Degree. 

Samson, J. M. (2016). Human trafficking and globalization [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Federal or State Statute

Name of Act, Public Law No. (Year). URL

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Publ. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010).  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-111publ148/pdf/PLAW-111publ148.pdf

Report by a Government Agency or Other Organization

Organization Name. (Year). Title of report. URL

United States Government Accountability Office. (2019). Performance and accountability report: Fiscal year 2019 . https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/702715.pdf

Report by Individual Authors at Government Agency or Other Organization

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of report . Organization Name. URL

Palanker, D., Volk, J., Lucia, K., & Thomas, K. (2018). Mental health parity at risk: Deregulating the individual market and the impact on mental health coverage . National Alliance on Mental Illness. https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI/Publications-Reports/Public-Policy-Reports/Parity-at-Risk/ParityatRisk.pdf  

Conference Proceedings

The 7 th edition of the APA manual does not provide guidance on citing conference proceedings. Therefore, this citation models that of an edited collection, which is similar in format.

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Eds.). (Year). Title of Proceedings . Publisher. URL (if applicable)

Huang, S., Pierce, R., & Stamey, J. (Eds.). (2006). Proceedings of the 24 th annual ACM international conference on the design of communication . ACM Digital Library. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1166324&picked=prox

Organizing Research for Arts and Humanities Papers and Theses

• General Guide Information
• Developing a Topic
• What are Primary and Secondary Sources
• What are Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Sources
• Writing an Abstract
• Writing Academic Book Reviews
• Writing A Literature Review
• Using Images and other Media

Distinguishing Primary from Secondary Sources

Most research papers in the arts and humanities require use of primary and secondary sources for critical analysis and support of ideas. But what is a primary source and what is a secondary source? Figuring this out can be complicated!

What is a Primary Source?

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association offers a historical definition of  a primary source, to wit:

"primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories." [RUSA, "Using Primary Sources on the Web," accessed January 2014 through http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/pubs/usingprimarysources]

Another useful definition is provided by Sylvan Barnet, who describes primary sources as the subject of study, and secondary sources as materials written about the primary sources. [Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art (New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005), 240.]

Some Examples of Primary Sources

Ordinarily, a primary source is thought of as being unique, such as, for example:

an object, a letter, a photograph, an art work, a city plan.

an archival collection, such as someone's papers or office records.

The reality is, however, that not all primary sources are unique. Some have been republished or reproduced multiple times. Here are some examples:

a newspaper article that first reported on an event.

a creative or theoretical work, such as, for example, the architect Le Corbusier's book Urbanisme , first published during his lifetime in the 1920s, and translated into English fairly soon thereafter as The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning. Editions of this work, both in the original French and in translation, may constitute a primary source, depending on the context in which they are used.

The context of your research is very important in defining what are primary and secondary materials. If you are writing a critical course paper on Le Corbusier's ideas for city planning, any translation of his book The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning may be used as a primary source. If, however, you are writing about the development of Le Corbusier's planning thoughts and on the dissemination of his ideas, you will likely have to use a particular edition for your research. Given this more specific historic context of your research, early editions in French and other languages may constitute your primary sources, whereas the later editions may not be as relevant to your study, or might be used as secondary resources.

What is a Secondary Source?

Regardless of what "primary" source is appropriate for the context of your research project, your and others' critical analysis of it are secondary sources.

*********************

I highly recommend the USC Libraries Primary Source Guide  for information on collections of primary resources and recommendations for evaluating primary sources.

Remember to keep track of your sources, regardless of the stage of your research. The USC Libraries have an excellent guide to  citation styles  and to  citation management software . 

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How to Read a Secondary Source

Reading secondary historical sources is a skill which may be acquired and must be practiced. Reading academic material well is an active process that can be far removed from the kind of pleasure reading most of us are used to. Sure, history may sometimes be dry, but you'll find success reading even the most difficult material if you can master these skills. The key here is taking the time and energy to engage the material – to think through it and to connect it to other material you have covered.

How to Read a Book

• Read the title. Define every word in the title; look up any unknown words. Think about what the title promises for the book.
• Look at the table of contents. This is your "menu" for the book. What can you tell about its contents and structure from the TOC?
• Read the book from the outside in. Read the foreword and introduction (if an article, read the first paragraph or two). Read the conclusion or epilogue if there is one (if an article, read the last one or two paragraphs). After all this, ask yourself what the author's thesis might be. How has the argument been structured? This will be a key to your understanding of the rest of the argument.
• Read chapters from the outside in. Quickly read the first and last paragraph of each chapter. After doing this and taking the step outlined above, you should have a good idea of the book's major themes and arguments.

You are now finally ready to read in earnest.

Don't read a history book as if you were reading a novel for light pleasure reading. Read through the chapters actively, taking cues as to which paragraphs are most important from their topic sentences. (Good topic sentences tell you what the paragraph is about.) Not every sentence and paragraph is as important as every other. It is up to you to judge, based on what you know so far about the book's themes and arguments. If you can, underline (don't highlight), passages that seem to be especially relevant. Feel free to make notes in the margins.

Take notes. Record your thoughts about the reading rather than simply the details and contents of the text. What surprised you? What seemed particularly insightful? What seems suspect? What reinforces or counters points made in other readings? This kind of note taking will keep your reading active, and actually will help you remember the contents of the text.

"S.T.A.M.P." it!

A technique for reading a book which complements the steps above is to answer a series of questions about your reading.

• How has the author structured her work?
• How would you briefly outline it?
• Why might she have employed this structure?
• What historical argument does the structure employ?
• After identifying the thesis, ask yourself in what ways the structure of the work enhances or detracts from the thesis.
• How does the author set about to make her or his case?
• What about the structure of the work makes it convincing?

A thesis is the controlling argument of a work of history.

Often, the most difficult task when reading a secondary source is to identify the author's thesis. In a well-written essay, the thesis is usually clearly stated near the beginning of the piece. In a long article or book, the thesis is usually diffuse. There may in fact be more than one. As you read, constantly ask yourself, "how could I sum up what this author is saying in one or two sentences?" This is a difficult task; even if you never feel you have succeeded, simply constantly trying to answer this question will advance your understanding of the work.

A thesis is not just a statement of opinion, or a belief, or a thought. It is an argument. Because it is an argument, it is subject to evaluation and analysis.

• Is it a good argument?
• How is the big argument (the thesis) structured into little arguments?
• Are these little arguments constructed well?
• Is the reasoning valid?
• Does the evidence support the conclusions?
• Has the author used invalid or incorrect logic?
• Is she relying on incorrect premises?
• What broad, unexamined assumptions seem to underlay the author's argument?
• Are these correct?

Note here that none of these questions ask if you like the argument or its conclusion. This part of the evaluation process asks you not for your opinion, but to evaluate the logic of the argument. There are two kinds of logic you must consider:

• Internal Logic is the way authors make their cases, given the initial assumptions, concerns, and definitions set forth in the essay or book. In other words, assuming that their concern is a sound one, does the argument make sense?
• Holistic Logic regards the piece as a whole. Are the initial assumptions correct? Is the author asking the proper questions? Has the author framed the problem correctly?

Why might the author have written this work?

This is a difficult question, and often requires outside information, such as information on how other historians were writing about the topic. Don't let the absence of that information keep you from using your historical imagination. Even if you don't have the information you wish you had, you can still ask yourself, "Why would the author argue this?" Many times, arguments in older works of history seem ludicrous or silly to us today. When we learn more about the context in which those arguments were made, however, they start to make more sense. Things like political events and movements, an author's ideological bents or biases, or an author's relationship to existing political and cultural institutions often have an impact on the way history is written. On the other hand, the struggle to achieve complete objectivity also affects the ways people have written history. It is only appropriate, then, that such considerations should inform your reading.

Read the footnotes , especially when you come across a particularly interesting or controversial passage. Make sure you can answer the following questions:

• What primary sources has the historian used to support her argument?
• Has she used them well?
• What pitfalls may befall the historians who uses these sources?
• How does her use of these kinds of sources influence the kinds of arguments she can make?
• What other sources might she have employed?

This page was adapted from the website by Patrick Rael, " Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students, "(Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, 2004).

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Citations: Secondary Sources

Nontraditional sources: secondary sources video.

• Nontraditional Sources: Secondary Sources (video transcript)

Basics of Secondary Sources

Secondary sources often are defined in contrast to primary sources. In a primary source, an author shares his or her original research—whether it be case study findings, experiment results, interview materials, or clinical observations. However, in a secondary source, an author focuses on presenting other scholars’ research, such as in a literature review.

When trying to distinguish between a primary and secondary source, it is important to ask yourself:

• Who originally made the discoveries or brought the conclusions in this document to light?
• Did the author conduct the study his or herself?
• Or is the author recounting the work of other authors? 

For further guidance on determining the difference between primary and secondary sources, see Walden Library’s “Evaluating Resources: Primary & Secondary Sources” page .

Citing a Source Within a Source

Secondary sources refer to sources that report on the content of other published sources.

Citing a source within a source (citing a secondary source) is generally acceptable within academic writing as long as these citations are kept to a minimum. You should use a secondary source only if you are unable to find or retrieve the original source of information. However, if you need to cite a source within a source, follow the guidelines from APA 7, Section 8.6.

For example, imagine that you found a quotation from Culver that you wish to use in your text; however, you found this information in Jones and were unable to locate Culver’s original source. For this reference, Culver would be the primary source, and Jones would be the secondary source. You will name the primary source in your text, but the reference and citations will credit the secondary source:

According to Culver (2006, as cited in Jones, 2009), learning APA "can be tough, but like any skill, it just takes practice" (p. 23). In addition, the mastery of APA increases an author's chance of scoring well on an assignment (Culver, 2006, as cited in Jones, 2009).

Corresponding Reference List Entry

Cite just the secondary source in your reference list.

Jones, J. (2009). Scholarly writing tips . Minneapolis, MN: Publishing House.

Secondary source citations are not just for direct quotations. For instance, when referencing Rogers's adult learning theory, if you did not find the information in Rogers, your citations for the material should be in secondary source format.

Note : When citing primary material, the original publication date is usually unneeded. Following the primary author's name with the year in parentheses, like Culver (2006), indicates that you are directly citing the original source. To avoid confusion, just include the year of the secondary source in your text, like Culver (as cited in Jones, 2009).

Related Resource

Knowledge check: secondary sources.

Didn't find what you need? Email us at [email protected] .

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Primary and secondary sources for your thesis

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What are primary and secondary sources?

Which sources are useful for your thesis, example: secondary source, can you use secondary sources, don't forget proper source citation, want to get your sources checked.

In your thesis, you will use various sources. Here, we distinguish between primary and secondary sources. In other words: original sources and sources that refer to another original source. What exactly does this mean? Can you use both primary and secondary sources for your thesis? How can you be sure that a source is reliable? We explain all of this to you using examples.

Primary sources are original sources. This means that you look at a particular study, situation, or experience through the eyes of the researcher, an expert by experience, or a witness. This is the case, for example, in research articles. The researcher then elaborates on the research they conducted and draws conclusions based on it. 

Secondary sources are those that discuss research, findings, experiences, or creations of others. Within secondary sources, a primary source is interpreted or analysed. These sources are further removed from the topic that is being studied. For example, they refer to research conducted by others and give a brief summary of it. Examples of secondary sources are literature reviews (in which various sources are discussed) or a documentary.

In particular, we recommend using primary sources for your thesis. These are the most reliable. This is because you then base your stance on the original source and the researcher's own interpretation of it. If you use a secondary source, there is a chance that you will use an incorrect interpretation of the primary source for your thesis. 

Examples primary source

Primary sources involve reading direct results, interpretations, or reports rather than information about them. Primary sources are not interpreted or summarised by other people, so you are as close to the source as possible. 

These are some examples of primary sources:

A scientific article on a research project conducted in-house;

statistical results;

surveys and interviews;

legal documents;

eyewitness reports;

photos and videos depicting a situation or event;

audio recordings of a conversation;

a painting;

an autobiography;

Example: primary source 1

Suppose you want to research a particular police interrogation. Your best bet then is to rely on the primary source. In this case, that is the audio recording of the interview or a verbatim transcription of it. An eyewitness account of an event is also a primary source. These sources are more reliable than if you delve into someone else's study of this particular interrogation.

Example: primary source 2

Another example of a primary source is an empirical study you conduct yourself . For example, you conduct research on news consumption among young people aged 15-18 at a secondary school in The Hague. For this, you conduct surveys among the target group, analyse the results, and describe them in a research report. 

Your research is then a primary source because you as the researcher share and interpret the original data. This is not done by someone who is not involved in the research.

Secondary sources are (collections of) analyses or interpretations of primary sources. As a result, secondary sources are further removed from the primary source. 

Examples of secondary sources are:

Literature studies;

review articles;

editorials;

textbooks or volumes discussing studies;

documentaries;

news reports (which do not include eyewitness accounts);

a catalogue of art;

film reviews;

a book someone else has written in which the writer has created a portrait of a particular person;

blog articles about a particular study.

Example: secondary source 1

You are curious about others' interpretations of the police interrogation you are investigating. Online, you come across a documentary by someone interpreting this interrogation. You also come across an academic publication by someone who compiles various findings about this interrogation. Both are examples of secondary sources. 

Example: secondary source 2

You want to research news consumption among young people aged 15-18. Within your plan of action, it is not feasible to conduct your own surveys or interviews. Therefore, you decide to do literature research. You collect a large number of articles on the subject, start interpreting them and compare the results. Using this information, you write your thesis. 

In this case, your thesis is a secondary source because you rely on interpretations, not your own results.

Primary sources are often preferred, but that does not mean that secondary sources are not useful at all. The use of secondary sources can still be appropriate for your thesis. For instance, there are extensive literature reviews that highlight a large number of previous studies. Such a literature review can certainly be relevant to your thesis. 

Most students use primary as well as secondary sources for their thesis. This is possible as long as you are aware of possible bias in secondary sources. 

Does a secondary source cite a particular primary source? If so, it is always good to look into the primary source yourself. That way you can be sure that you are interpreting this source correctly. Have you been able to find and look into the primary source? Then refer to that primary source in the text as well. Is that primary source not accessible? Then you can refer to its interpretation using the secondary source (and cite the secondary source in your bibliography). Do make it clear that this is an interpretation.

Whether it is a primary or secondary source, you must use the correct source citation. Each source used should be given a place in the bibliography and the running text, and formatted according to certain guidelines set by your study programme or supervisor. 

Most studies use the APA style for this purpose. Within legal studies, the Guideline for Legal Authors is the common referencing style. 

Proper citation of sources is rather tricky. Doing this correctly prevents you from (accidentally) committing plagiarism. Are you unsure of whether you have referenced your sources correctly in your thesis? Get your sources checked by one of the AthenaCheck editors. They will carefully check each source for you and adjust your sources where necessary starting from as little as € 2 per source!

Dissertation & Doctoral Project Formatting & Clearance: Citing Indirect Sources (secondary sources)

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Citing Indirect & Secondary Sources

APA (see APA, section 6.17, p. 178; APA Style FAQ ) suggests that secondary sources should be used sparingly, especially when the full-text of the original source is available.  However, there are instances in which the original source is:

• Out of print
• Unavailable through the usual sources
• Not available in English

In these cases, you would list the secondary source in the reference list, name the original work and use an in-text citation for the secondary source.

Here are some examples:

Citing an original work from a secondary source:

a. Secondary citation within the text:

According to  Freud (as cited in Skinner, 1923),  the characteristics ….

b. The document used is cited in the reference list:

Skinner, B. F. (1974). About behavioralism.  New York, NY: Knopf.

Notice that Freud is mentioned in the body of the paper so the reader would understand that any ideas being cited even though the actual book that discussed Freud's ideas was actual written by Skinner.

Citing an unpublished manuscript from an archival collection

Original documents for unpublished and archived sources are difficult to retrieve so secondary sources may be used. An example includes a diary entry like the example in APA (6th ed.), p. 178, section 6.17.

a. Secondary citation ithin the text (direct APA example, p. 178)

    Allport's diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003).

b. The actual document  used  is cited in the reference list

Nicholson, I. (2003). Inventing personality: Gordon Allport and the science of selfhood. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological

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• Primary vs. Secondary Sources | Difference & Examples

Primary vs. Secondary Sources | Difference & Examples

Published on 4 September 2022 by Raimo Streefkerk . Revised on 15 May 2023.

When you do research, you have to gather information and evidence from a variety of sources.

Primary sources provide raw information and first-hand evidence. Examples include interview transcripts, statistical data, and works of art. A primary source gives you direct access to the subject of your research.

Secondary sources provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers. Examples include journal articles, reviews, and academic books . A secondary source describes, interprets, or synthesises primary sources.

Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but good research uses both primary and secondary sources.

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Table of contents

What is a primary source, what is a secondary source, primary and secondary source examples, how to tell if a source is primary or secondary, primary vs secondary sources: which is better, frequently asked questions about primary and secondary sources.

A primary source is anything that gives you direct evidence about the people, events, or phenomena that you are researching. Primary sources will usually be the main objects of your analysis.

If you are researching the past, you cannot directly access it yourself, so you need primary sources that were produced at the time by participants or witnesses (e.g. letters, photographs, newspapers ).

If you are researching something current, your primary sources can either be qualitative or quantitative data that you collect yourself (e.g. through interviews, surveys, experiments) or sources produced by people directly involved in the topic (e.g. official documents or media texts).

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A secondary source is anything that describes, interprets, evaluates, or analyses information from primary sources. Common examples include:

• Books , articles and documentaries that synthesise information on a topic
• Synopses and descriptions of artistic works
• Encyclopaedias and textbooks that summarize information and ideas
• Reviews and essays that evaluate or interpret something

When you cite a secondary source, it’s usually not to analyse it directly. Instead, you’ll probably test its arguments against new evidence or use its ideas to help formulate your own.

Examples of sources that can be primary or secondary

A secondary source can become a primary source depending on your research question . If the person, context, or technique that produced the source is the main focus of your research, it becomes a primary source.

To determine if something can be used as a primary or secondary source in your research, there are some simple questions you can ask yourself:

• Does this source come from someone directly involved in the events I’m studying (primary) or from another researcher (secondary)?
• Am I interested in analysing the source itself (primary) or only using it for background information (secondary)?
• Does the source provide original information (primary) or does it comment upon information from other sources (secondary)?

Most research uses both primary and secondary sources. They complement each other to help you build a convincing argument. Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but secondary sources show how your work relates to existing research.

What do you use primary sources for?

Primary sources are the foundation of original research. They allow you to:

• Make new discoveries
• Provide credible evidence for your arguments
• Give authoritative information about your topic

If you don’t use any primary sources, your research may be considered unoriginal or unreliable.

What do you use secondary sources for?

Secondary sources are good for gaining a full overview of your topic and understanding how other researchers have approached it. They often synthesise a large number of primary sources that would be difficult and time-consuming to gather by yourself. They allow you to:

• Gain background information on the topic
• Support or contrast your arguments with other researchers’ ideas
• Gather information from primary sources that you can’t access directly (e.g. private letters or physical documents located elsewhere)

When you conduct a literature review , you can consult secondary sources to gain a thorough overview of your topic. If you want to mention a paper or study that you find cited in a secondary source, seek out the original source and cite it directly.

Remember that all primary and secondary sources must be cited to avoid plagiarism . You can use Scribbr’s free citation generator to do so!

Common examples of primary sources include interview transcripts , photographs, novels, paintings, films, historical documents, and official statistics.

Anything you directly analyze or use as first-hand evidence can be a primary source, including qualitative or quantitative data that you collected yourself.

Common examples of secondary sources include academic books, journal articles , reviews, essays , and textbooks.

Anything that summarizes, evaluates or interprets primary sources can be a secondary source. If a source gives you an overview of background information or presents another researcher’s ideas on your topic, it is probably a secondary source.

To determine if a source is primary or secondary, ask yourself:

• Was the source created by someone directly involved in the events you’re studying (primary), or by another researcher (secondary)?
• Does the source provide original information (primary), or does it summarize information from other sources (secondary)?
• Are you directly analyzing the source itself (primary), or only using it for background information (secondary)?

Some types of sources are nearly always primary: works of art and literature, raw statistical data, official documents and records, and personal communications (e.g. letters, interviews ). If you use one of these in your research, it is probably a primary source.

Primary sources are often considered the most credible in terms of providing evidence for your argument, as they give you direct evidence of what you are researching. However, it’s up to you to ensure the information they provide is reliable and accurate.

Always make sure to properly cite your sources to avoid plagiarism .

A fictional movie is usually a primary source. A documentary can be either primary or secondary depending on the context.

If you are directly analysing some aspect of the movie itself – for example, the cinematography, narrative techniques, or social context – the movie is a primary source.

If you use the movie for background information or analysis about your topic – for example, to learn about a historical event or a scientific discovery – the movie is a secondary source.

Whether it’s primary or secondary, always properly cite the movie in the citation style you are using. Learn how to create an MLA movie citation or an APA movie citation .

Articles in newspapers and magazines can be primary or secondary depending on the focus of your research.

In historical studies, old articles are used as primary sources that give direct evidence about the time period. In social and communication studies, articles are used as primary sources to analyse language and social relations (for example, by conducting content analysis or discourse analysis ).

If you are not analysing the article itself, but only using it for background information or facts about your topic, then the article is a secondary source.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Streefkerk, R. (2023, May 15). Primary vs. Secondary Sources | Difference & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 18 September 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/primary-vs-secondary-sources/

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• What are Primary and Secondary Sources?
• Using Summary
• Make Your Sources Speak

What Are Primary and Secondary Sources?

A primary source is a source that you are analyzing as the writer. In other words, there is no mediary between you and the text; you are the one doing the analysis.

Some examples of primary sources:

A secondary source , then, is a source that has also done analysis of the same (or a similar) topic. You will then use this source to discuss how it relates to your argument about the primary source. A secondary source is a mediary between you and the primary source. Secondary sources can also help your credibility as a writer; when you use them in your writing, it shows that you have done research on the topic, and can enter into the conversation on the topic with other writers.

Some examples of secondary sources:

Summary: When and How Do I Use It?

  One of the important distinctions to make when coming to terms with a text is knowing when to summarize it, when to paraphrase it, and when to quote it. Here’s what Joseph Harris, author of the textbook Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts ,  has to say:

  “Summarize when what you have to say about a text is routine and quote when it is more contentious” (21).

In other words, quote when you need to rely on the voice of the writer, when you need the language of the text to help you make a point. Otherwise, try to use paraphrase or summary, so that your ideas are still the main focus.

 Summarizing a text can distract your reader from your argument, especially if you rely on lengthy summaries to capture a source in a nutshell. However, it can also prove an effective rhetorical tool: you just need to know when to use it.

You can use summary in the following ways:  

         - When the source offers important background about your ideas

       - When you need to provide your readers with an overview of a source’s entire argument before analyzing certain ideas from it

       - When the source either supports your thesis, or when it offers a position you want to argue against or analyze more in-depth

Here is a sample summary. What do you notice about it?

Ryuko Kubota argues in “Ideologies of English in Japan” that the debate over English’s place in the Japanese language disappeared with the militaristic rule of the 1930s and 1940s, when Japan rejected and/or suppressed the learning of English and other languages in favor of heavy nationalism. However, he adds that the debate returned during America’s occupation of Japan and has periodically been a topic for debate since.  Japanese politicians have always seen English as an important tool for Japan’s success as an industrial nation on a global scale. However, instead of molding itself to the English of the Western world, Japan has integrated English to fit its ideologies, to serve its own needs; indeed, to become part of the Japanese language.

1. This is a succinct summary; the entire summary is only three sentences.

2. The final sentence of the paragraph is the writer's attempt to make a connection between the article and her own ideas for her paper. This is an important step in using summary; it's important to always show the reader how/why the summary is important/relevant.

Paraphrasing: When/How/Why Should I Do It?

Paraphrasing gives you the room to condense a text’s ideas into your own words.  You can use this, for example, to rewrite a definition, to emphasize important points, or to clarify ideas that might be hard for the reader to understand if you quote the original text.

When you paraphrase, remember that you still need to cite the source in-text!

Depending on your field and the style guide your field follows, you may be required to paraphrase more than quote or summarize. Make sure you are familiar with the writing conventions for your field. APA, for example, draws much more on paraphrase than MLA.

Example of a Paraphrase

Let’s look at an example of a paraphrase.  Note that here the author of this paraphrase has used the author’s name first as an attributive tag – she is letting the reader know who wrote this.  She then goes on to put the writer’s ideas into her own words, but acknowledges directly where the ideas came from by using the in-text citation at the end of the second sentence.

    - This is a paraphrase for MLA; in APA, the year would come after Honna's name in parentheses.

In source-based or synthesis writing, we try to not only express our ideas using our own voice, but to also express our ideas through the voices of those we are citing. In their book Wriiting Analytically , Rosenwasser and Stephen offer six strategies to use in researched writing to make our sources speak, to make them come alive.

Here are some typical problems we encounter when using primary and secondary sources:

     - Leaving quotations and paraphrases to speak for themselves

     - Not differentiating your own voice from the voices of your sources (ventriloquizing)

     - Resorting to overly agreeing and disagreeing as your only means of responding to a source (other than summary)

Primary and secondary sources are nothing to fear. Many times we either leave sources to speak for themselves or ignore them altogether because we are afraid of losing our own voices. These strategies, listed below, are designed to help us know when and how to use quotes, and how not to become lost in the process.

Strategy 1: Make Your Sources Speak

v Quote, paraphrase, or summarize in order to analyze , as opposed to in place of analyzing.  Don’t assume that the meaning of your source material is self-evident.  Instead, explain to your readers what the quote, paraphrase, or summary means.  For example, what aspects do you find interesting or strange?  And relate these aspects to your overall thesis.   Your focus here in analysis should be on how the source leads you to your conclusion – beware of generalizing or putting two quotes next to each other without explaining the connection.

Using Strategy #1 : How are you using your sources?  Are you taking the time to develop points from your sources, or are you just using evidence – and is it clear why you are using it?  Highlight/bracket analysis, mark in a different color where analysis is not present immediately following source.  

Strategy 2: Use Your Sources to Ask Questions, Not Just to Provide Answers

v Use your selections from your sources as a means to raise issues and questions; avoid the temptation to use selections that provide answers without any commentary or further elaboration.  If you feel stuck with this, consider the source alongside other contexts (other sources, for example) and compare and contrast them to see if there are aspects of your topic that your source does not adequately address.

Using Strategy #2: Again, ask: how are you using your sources as question generators?  What how/why questions do your sources generate?  Look over the evidence you’ve used, and jot down the how/why questions you think your evidence creates.  Next, go through your paper.  Do you see yourself addressing these questions?  Mark your analysis appropriately so you can see how you’re addressing these questions (or not).  

Strategy 3: Put Your Sources in Conversation with One Another

v This is an extension of strategy 2.  Rather than limiting yourself to the only conversationalist with each source, aim for conversation among them.  Although it is not wrong to agree or disagree with your sources, it is wrong to see these as your only possible moves.  You should also understand that although it is sometimes useful and perhaps even necessary to agree or disagree, these judgments should 1) always be qualified and 2) occur only in certain contexts .  Instead of looking just at how you agree or disagree, try to imagine what these critics might say to one another.  Looking at sources in this way may prove useful as you explore your topics further in depth.

Using Strategy #3:

    This is a way for your sources to address one another directly, while also giving you more room to expand on your ideas through a slightly different form of analysis.  For example: what might the person you interviewed think about the secondary sources you found?  Would they agree with the claims you see your sources making, or would they disagree?  Why – what about their interview suggests this?  Make a list of possible dialogues your sources could have with one another.  

Strategy 4: Find Your Own Role in the Conversation

v Even though it’s important to not be the only person in the essay agreeing and disagreeing with the texts, it is important that you establish what you think and feel about each source.  After all, something compelled you to choose it, right?  In general, you have two options when you are in agreement with a source.  You can apply it in another context to qualify or expand its implications, or you can seek out other perspectives in order to break the hold it has on you.  In the first option, to do this, instead of focusing on the most important point, choose a lesser yet equally interesting point and work on developing that idea to see if it holds relevance to your topic.  The second option can also hold new perspectives if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities of other perspectives that may or may not agree with your original source.

Using Strategy #4: While it’s important that you create a distinct voice for all the different kinds of sources you’ve used (interview, fieldwork, scholarly journals/books, etc.), it’s perhaps even more important that you have a clear role in this conversation that is your research essay.  Look over your paper: is it clear what you think?  Is it clear what is your voice, and what are the ideas/opinions of your sources? (Hint: your voice should still be clear in the midst of your sources, if you are taking the time to analyze them and develop your analysis as fully as possible.)  Highlight places where you voice – what you think – is clear.  Highlight in a different color places where your voice is unclear, or needs to be expressed more fully.

Strategy 5: Supply Ongoing Analysis of Sources (Don’t Wait Until the End)

v Instead of summarizing everything first and then leaving your analysis until the end, analyze as you quote or paraphrase a source .  This will help yield good conversation, by integrating your analysis of your sources into your presentation of them.

Using Strateg y #5:

Are your sources presented throughout the paper with careful analysis attending to each one?  Or are you presenting all your sources first, and analyzing them later?  Look through your paper, and mark places where you see yourself not analyzing your sources as you go.  Also: are there places where you see too much analysis, and not enough evidence?  Be sure to mark those places as well.  

Strategy 6: Attend Carefully to the Language of Your Sources by Quoting or Paraphrasing Them

v Rather than generalizing broadly about the ideas in your sources, you should spell out what you think is significant about their key words.  Quote sources if the actual language they use is important to your point; this practice will help you to present the view of your source fairly and accurately.  Your analysis will also benefit from the way the source represents its position (which may or may not be your position) with carefully chosen words and phrases.  Take advantage of this, and use the exact language to discuss the relevance (or not) of the quote to the issue you’re using it for.

Using Strategy #6: When paraphrasing or quoting a source, it’s important that you use the language of the source to help explain it – it keeps the reader in the moment with you, and helps him/her understand the key terms of that source – why you chose, why these words are so important, etc.  Look over your evidence, both quoted and paraphrased: are you using the language of the quote to help explain it?  Or is your analysis removed from the “moment of the source” (i.e. the language which the source uses to illustrate its point)?  Mark places where you think it’s important to use the language of the source to help analyze and develop the evidence more completely.  

• Strategies for Using Quotes
• Floating Quotations
• How to Integrate Quotations

Attributed Quotations

Integrated Quotations

Strategies for Using Quotations In-Text

Acknowledge sources in your text, not just in citations:  

      “According to Lewis” or “Whitney argues.”

Use a set-up phrase, and splice the most important part of quotations in with your own words:

     According to Paul McCartney, “All you need is love.”

  Or phrase it with a set-up:

     Patrick Henry’s famous phrase is one of the first American schoolchildren memorize:

     “Give me liberty, or give me death.”

Anytime you use a quote, cite your source after the quotation:  

     Maxine Greene might attribute this resistance to “vaguely perceived expectations; they

     allow themselves to be programmed by organizations and official schedules or forms” (43).

Use ellipses to shorten quotations:

      “The album ‘OK Computer’ …pictured the onslaught of the information age and a young

        person’s panicky embrace of it” (Ross 85) .

Use square brackets to alter or add information within a quotation:  

      Popular music has always “[challenged] the mores of the older generation,” according to

      Nick Hornby.

Acc ording to Janet Gardner in her book Writing About Literature , there are three ways that we tend to use quotes:

Gardner advocates that we stay away from “floating quotations,” use at least an “attributed quotation,” and use “integrated quotations” as much as possible.

You will recognize a floating quotation when it looks as though the writer has simply lifted the passage from the original text, put quotations around it, and (maybe) identified the source.

Doing this can create confusion for the reader, who is left to guess the context and the reason for the quote.

This type of quoting reads awkward and choppy because there is no transition between your words and the language of the text you are quoting.

Example of a Floating Quotation; text taken from All She was Worth , by Miyuki Miyabe    

  Both Honma and Kyoko were rejected and looked down upon by Jun and Chizuko’s family when entering into marriage with their respective partners. “About her cousin – Jun’s father – and his family: what snobs they were, with fixed ideas on education and jobs” ( Miyabe 17).This passage shows that Honma and Kyoko were both being judged by their future in-laws by superficial stipulations.

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Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Search catalog, what are the differences.

Sources of information or evidence are often categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary material. These classifications are based on the originality of the material and the proximity of the source or origin. This informs the reader as to whether the author is reporting information that is first hand or is conveying the experiences and opinions of others which is considered second hand. Determining if a source is primary, secondary or tertiary can be tricky. Below you will find a description of the three categories of information and examples to help you make a determination.

Primary Sources

These sources are records of events or evidence as they are first described or actually happened without any interpretation or commentary. It is information that is shown for the first time or original materials on which other research is based.  Primary sources display original thinking, report on new discoveries, or share fresh information.

Secondary Sources

These sources offer an analysis or restatement of primary sources. They often try to describe or explain primary sources. They tend to be works which summarize, interpret, reorganize, or otherwise provide an added value to a primary source.

Tertiary Sources

These are sources that index, abstract, organize, compile, or digest other sources. Some reference materials and textbooks are considered tertiary sources when their chief purpose is to list, summarize or simply repackage ideas or other information. Tertiary sources are usually not credited to a particular author.

• University of La Verne
• Subject Guides

Literature Review Basics

• Primary & Secondary Sources
• Literature Review Introduction
• Writing Literature Reviews
• Tutorials & Samples

The Literature

The Literature refers to the collection of scholarly writings on a topic. This includes peer-reviewed articles, books, dissertations and conference papers.

• When reviewing the literature, be sure to include major works as well as studies that respond to major works. You will want to focus on primary sources, though secondary sources can be valuable as well.

Primary Sources

The term primary source is used broadly to embody all sources that are original. P rimary sources provide first-hand information that is closest to the object of study. Primary sources vary by discipline.

• In the natural and social sciences, original reports of research found in academic journals detailing the methodology used in the research, in-depth descriptions, and discussions of the findings are considered primary sources of information.
• Other common examples of primary sources include speeches, letters, diaries, autobiographies, interviews, official reports, court records, artifacts, photographs, and drawings.  

Galvan, J. L. (2013). Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences . Glendale, CA: Pyrczak.

Secondary Sources

A secondary source is a source that provides non-original or secondhand data or information. 

• Secondary sources are written about primary sources.
• Research summaries reported in textbooks, magazines, and newspapers are considered secondary sources. They typically provide global descriptions of results with few details on the methodology. Other examples of secondary sources include biographies and critical studies of an author's work.

Secondary Source. (2005). In W. Paul Vogt (Ed.), Dictionary of Statistics & Methodology. (3 rd ed., p. 291). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Weidenborner, S., & Caruso, D. (1997). Writing research papers: A guide to the process . New York: St. Martin's Press.

More Examples of Primary and Secondary Sources

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• Peterborough

Using Secondary Sources in an English Essay

• The English essay as research essay
• Finding good secondary sources for English essays
• Tips on using secondary sources
• Effective summarizing and paraphrasing
• Documenting sources in MLA style (Modern Languages Association)

The English Essay as Research Essay

While much of what you will write in an English essay is based on your own analysis of a text, there is certainly a place for research and the use of secondary sources in an English essay. Research helps you to define or explain

• word meanings
• literary allusions
• cultural, political, religious and historical background
• authors’ biographies
• literary critics’ interpretations

These explanations can all be helpful in relating a literary work to broader contexts, in explaining who mythical characters are, in understanding the influence and effect of a work on readers and other writers, and so on.

As soon as you use your first secondary source, you are venturing into research. Research essays are based on information and opinion that you find and read; however, this information and opinion  need to be synthesized and assimilated by  you , so you can express, in turn, what you know and think about the subject.

Using Secondary Sources

Some literary secondary sources provide background information on literary texts, such as a text’s reception by critics on its publication, or events in the author’s life that may have influenced the text, and so on. However, you may find that you turn to secondary sources more for critics’ interpretations of the texts you are writing about than for background information.

Finding Good Secondary Sources for English Essays

• Many instructors provide lists, sometimes in their course outlines, of good secondary sources. Your texts, as well, may have forewords, afterwords, introductions, glossaries, background information, and further reading lists. Get to know your texts well.
• Critical, edited editions of a literary work usually provide a wealth of references to secondary sources in the form of "further reading" lists.
• Use the library online catalogue to find a particular author’s works; the catalogue may provide a link for "nearby items on shelf" which you can explore for additional works by the author or books by critics on the author's works. You can also browse the stacks where the author's works are located to find relevant articles and books.
• Online Indexes – Indexes are like search engines, but they search only for articles that have been published in academic journals/periodicals and other academic sources. You can search an index for relevant articles. Many indexes make full-text articles available online, some don’t and you have to find the print periodical to read the article in full. They are the best way to search for articles.
• Related Websites – The subject guide also lists websites related to the study of English literature. Take some time to browse through the sites listed. Note how they differ from essay selling sites in their emphasis on the free dissemination of knowledge and on the people and institutions behind the knowledge.
• Reference Books - The subject guide also lists all the reference books pertinent to English and where they are in the reference section of the library.
• Google Scholar can get you started finding scholarly sources online.

Many undergraduate English essays do not require extensive use of secondary sources. Critical editions of literary works, the library stacks, online indexes and subject guides should yield plenty with which to work. Finding good secondary sources is, of course, only a first step. The second step is to use them properly.

Tips on Using Secondary Sources

• Use what the critics have to say to support your own thesis. That is why it is so important to follow good essay writing procedures and think things through as much as possible on your own first.
• Sometimes the well runs dry, and you just can’t come up with much on your own. Use a critic sparingly to spark an idea, but then try to run with it yourself. You will have to cite the critic for the idea, but how you go on to apply it will be yours.
• Sometimes you come up with something yourself and then find a critic saying the same thing. It’s still your idea, and you can present it as your own and use the critic to add support and authority. Sometimes you may disagree with a critic’s interpretation. Feel free to use the critic’s argument as a starting point and then present your own ideas in opposition.
• The main source of support and evidence for your points is the primary text. Try to draw your conclusive evidence from the primary text, the work in question.
• Keep the idea of synthesis in mind. A synthesis is a whole that was created by mixing together separate parts. Some of the ideas in your essay may be yours backed up by evidence from the primary text, and some belong to various critics, but the whole is created by mixing the parts together. You, as synthesizer and essay-writer, properly subordinate the critics, and you use them so they can best help support your thesis.

Remember, yours is the intelligence that mixes together what you think and what others think (by always telling the reader when it is you speaking and when it is someone else and who that someone else is). Yours is the voice that should most strongly come through.

Read more about effective summarizing and paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism.

• Understanding The English Essay
• Developing a Topic and Thesis for an English Essay
• Drafting the English Essay
• Glossary of Common Formal Elements of Literature
• Documenting Sources in MLA Style (Modern Languages Association)

University Library

Find Secondary Sources

What is a secondary source.

Secondary sources address or analyze events, people, works, or topics after the fact, unlike primary sources which provide firsthand accounts. To learn more about primary sources, see our Primary Sources  page.

Examples of secondary sources include:

• Newspaper articles
• Journal and magazine articles
• Encyclopedias

Why use secondary sources?

Secondary sources allow you to broaden your research by providing background information, analyses, and unique perspectives one or more steps removed from an original event or work.

How can I tell if something is a secondary source?

The following questions can help you determine if you have a secondary source:

• Author : What is the author’s relationship to the material or event described? Does his or her knowledge stem from personal experience or not?
• Purpose:  What is the purpose of the content? Is the author interpreting previous events?
• Publication Date:  Is the date of the publication further away from the event described?

Where can I find secondary sources?

Library catalog.

Find books, magazines, journals, and more in the Library Catalog. Use “Material Type” in the “Advanced Search” interface to customize your search results.

Online Reference Collection (Encyclopedias)

We recommend the following as starting points for finding encyclopedia entries on a variety of topics:

• Credo Reference
• Gale Virtual Reference Library 

Library Databases

The Library’s Find Articles Guide provides recommended databases for finding magazine, journal, and newspaper articles in a variety of disciplines. We recommend Academic Search Ultimate  as a starting point for finding articles on a variety of topics.

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Dissertation Research Help: Finding and Using Secondary Sources

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Updated Deadlines for Graduate Thesis, Dissertation, and Capstone Project for SY 2024-2025

18 Sep 2024 | Office of the Assistant Vice President for Graduate Education

In line with the updated graduation dates announced by the Office of the University Registrar on 11 September 2024 ( Academic Calendar ), kindly note the revised deadlines related to Thesis, Dissertation, and Capstone Projects:

Please refer to the following documents for the most recent TDCP policies and procedures:

1.  OAVPGE memo released last 5 September 2024

2.  2024 Graduate Student Handbook

Kindly disseminate this to your faculty advisers, panel members, style readers, and graduate students. 

Thank you very much.

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