What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources provide the raw data you use to support your arguments. Some common types of primary resources include manuscripts, diaries, court cases, maps, data sets, experiment results, news stories, polls, or original research.  In the arts, humanities and literature, creative works, such as novels, plays, music, and works of art are considered primary sources.  In many cases what makes a primary resource is contextual.  For example, a biography about Abraham Lincoln is a secondary resource about Lincoln. However, if examined as a piece of evidence about the nature of biographical writing, or as an example of the biographer's writing method it becomes a primary resource.

What is a Secondary Source?

Secondary sources analyze primary sources, using primary source materials to answer research questions.  Secondary sources may analyze, criticize, review, interpret or summarize data from primary sources. The most common secondary sources are academic books, journal articles, or reviews of the literature. Secondary sources in one context may be primary sources in another. For example if someone studies the nature of literary criticism in the 19th century then a literary critque from the 19th century becomes a primary resource.