In This Chapter:
Many college courses require students to locate and use secondary sources in a research paper. Educators assign research papers because they require you to find your own sources, confront conflicting evidence, and blend diverse information and ideas—all skills required in any professional leadership role. This chapter will review some of the basic guidelines for understanding and finding outside sources.
Types of Sources
There are three types of sources: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary (reference).
Primary Sources:
Primary sources are documents, images or artifacts that provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an historical topic under research investigation. Primary sources are original documents created or experienced contemporaneously with the event being researched. Primary sources enable researchers to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.
Secondary Sources:
Secondary sources are works that analyze, assess or interpret an historical event, era, or phenomenon, generally utilizing primary sources to do so. Secondary sources often offer a review or a critique. Secondary sources can include books, journal articles, speeches, reviews, research reports, and more. Generally speaking, secondary sources are written well after the events that are being researched.
Tertiary (Reference) Sources:
Tertiary sources are sources that identify and locate primary and secondary sources. These can include bibliographies, indexes, abstracts, encyclopedias, and other reference resources; available in multiple formats, i.e. some are online, others only in print. It is important to note that these categories, i.e. secondary and tertiary, are not mutually exclusive. A single item may be primary or secondary (or even tertiary) depending on your research topic and the use you make of that item.
Levels of Source Authority
Why is it that even the most informative Wikipedia articles are still often considered illegitimate? What are good sources to use instead?
Above all, follow your professor’s guidelines for choosing sources. They may have requirements for a certain number of articles, books, or websites you should include in your paper. Be sure to familiarize yourself with your professor’s requirements before beginning your research.
The table below summarizes types of secondary sources in four tiers. All sources have their legitimate uses, but the top-tier ones are considered the most credible for academic work.
Figure 6.1 Source Authority Table
|
Tier |
Type |
Content |
Uses |
How to find them |
|
1 |
Peer-reviewed academic publications |
Rigorous research and analysis |
Provide strong evidence for claims and references to other high-quality sources |
Academic article databases from the library’s website |
|
2 |
Reports, articles, and books from credible non-academic sources |
Well researched and even-handed descriptions of an event or state of the world |
Initial research on ev