PRIMARY
SOURCES
A primary
source is a first-hand or contemporary account of an event or topic. They are
the most direct evidence of a time or event because they were created by people
or things that were there at the time or event. These sources have not been
modified by interpretation and offer original thought or new information.
Primary sources are original materials, regardless of format. Letters, diaries,
minutes, photographs, artifacts, interviews, and sound or video recordings are
examples of primary sources created as a time or event is occurring. Oral
histories, newspaper or journal articles, and memoirs or autobiographies are
examples of primary sources created after the event or time in question but
offering first-hand accounts.
In scholarly writing, the objective of classifying sources is to
determine the independence and reliability of sources. Though the terms primary source and secondary source originated
in historiography as a way to trace the history of historical ideas, they
have been applied to many other fields. For example, these ideas may be used to
trace the history of scientific theories, literary elements, and other
information that is passed from one author to another.
In scientific
literature, a primary source is the original publication
of a scientist's new data, results, and theories. In political
history, primary sources are documents such as
official reports, speeches, pamphlets, posters, or letters by participants,
official election returns, and eyewitness accounts. In the history
of ideas or intellectual history, the
main primary sources are books, essays, and letters written by intellectuals;
these intellectuals may include historians, whose books and essays are
therefore considered primary sources for the intellectual historian, though
they are secondary sources in their own topical fields. In religious
history, the primary sources are religious
texts and descriptions of religious ceremonies and rituals.
Published materials can be viewed as primary resources if they
come from the time period that is being discussed, and were written or produced
by someone with firsthand experience of the event. Often primary
sources reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer.
Ø Examples of Primary Sources
· archives and manuscript material.
· photographs, audio recordings, video recordings, films.
· journals, letters and diaries.
· speeches.
· scrapbooks.
· published books, newspapers and magazine clippings published at the time.
· government publications.
· oral histories.
Ø To determine if a source is primary or secondary:
·
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 source are nearly always
primary: works of art and literature, raw statistical data, official documents
and records, and personal communications,
(e.g. letters, Interviews).
