APPENDIX A
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
Sometimes teachers will require a certain number of primary and/or secondary sources. Primary sources are the most direct kind of information: the literature, the work, letters, and other documents as originally written. Secondary sources are critical and historical accounts written about these materials.

 
PRIMARY SOURCES
 
SECONDARY SOURCES
 
experiments

observations

interviews

questionnaires

surveys

samplings

documents

treaties

court decisions

company records

memoirs, autobiographies

diaries

manuscripts

letters

poems

speeches

  
encyclopedias

textbooks

reports

biographies

biographies

magazines

newspapers

books
 

Examples:

Primary: "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., as reprinted in Annals of America or a broadcast of the speech recorded on videodisc.
Secondary:
 
Introduction given in Annals of America explaining the
circumstances under which the speech was given.
Primary:
A journal entry by William Clark discussing his expedition
with Meriwether Lewis.
 
 
Secondary:
A description of the general purpose or route of the Lewis
and Clark expedition.
Primary: Lines from The Scarlet Letter.
 
 
Secondary:
 Criticism of The Scarlet Letter