HOME - FINDING - EVALUATING - USING Primary sources are the building blocks of historical research and should provide the foundation of your argument and interpretation, whereas secondary sources should inform and supplement the primary sources. Use your primary sources as evidence for answering your research question and write based on those sources, rather than “plugging them in” after the fact to bolster your argument. In short, primary sources should drive the paper, not the other way around. Once you have identified primary sources, it is necessary to read and examine them with a critical eye. It is important to consider both the source itself and the time in which it was created. Remember, too, that sources exist in different formats. Below are some of the questions you may ask about the nature of a source:
Consideration of these questions will help you analyze and interpret your sources without overusing and relying on too many direct quotations. Sources: Citing SourcesBack to top of page The purpose of any citation method is the same, namely,
It is important to provide complete information about your primary source whether found in a printed source or online. The basic elements to include in a citation for a published print source are: author of the document, title of the document, title of the book if different from the document, name of editor or author of the book, place of publication, publisher, year, and page numbers. The basic elements to include in a citation for an online source are: author of the document, title of the document, title of the website, author or producer of the website, url, date (if given) and date accessed. Various style formats such as Chicago, MLA and APA put these elements in different order using different conventions. See the websites below for further information and examples. Style GuidesBack to top of page 1 Kate L. Turabian et al., A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 8th edition., Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013), 135–136. Do you think of yourself as a historian? No reason why you shouldn’t. Historians do two things. First, historians read primary sources before they write books or articles. Second, historians carefully analyze primary sources (also called documents) to make sense of events in the past. The lessons in North Dakota: People Living on the Land contain many primary sources for you to read along with short texts that identify the people and events of the time period you are studying. The short reading pieces will give you some context (the background information) that will help you understand the documents. Once you read the primary sources, you can analyze them to come to a better understanding of our history. Primary sources can be many different kinds of things. Photographs, plants (yes, the kind that grow), letters, maps, bones, tools, food, clothing, election ballots, places, laws, rocks, and soil are all examples of primary sources if they are examined for their historical meaning. Rocks? Yes, even the study of rocks (geology) reveals how North Dakota came to be part of the Great Plains. Our soil and climate are perfect for grain crops in the east, and the rocky hills are good for grazing in the west. Of course, some of our rocks deep below the surface contain oil. Rocks, along with soil and plants are primary sources for the study of North Dakota’s history and culture. Rocks are actually pretty easy to use as primary sources because they tell a very clear story. Letters, diaries, and newspapers are more complicated primary sources because they can tell many stories about humans and how they lived their lives. All primary sources are the evidence historians use to understand how people lived in the past. The best thing about reading primary sources, whether they are rocks or letters, is that you get to figure out what they mean. Historians call this analysis, but actually we all do it every day. Open the refrigerator. Do you see something to eat? Is it what you want to eat? If you eat it, will you get in trouble? Is there nothing in there that you want? Should you go grocery shopping? These questions and their answers are part of an analytical process about food. We can do the same thing with historical primary sources. After reading an old letter, we might ask these sorts of questions. Who wrote this letter? Who read the letter? When was the letter written? What is the subject of the letter? Is this letter part of a long exchange of letters, or is it the only one? Does the location of the letter writer have something to do with the subject? Why is this letter important to your study? Analysis can be very exciting. It is like sitting down to have a conversation with someone who lived a long time ago. Analysis of primary sources puts us in touch with people and connects us to our past. This is how we find out how we came to be who we are. Why bother? Why not let a historian take care of all of this thinking for you? Doing analysis yourself is a lot more fun than letting someone else do the thinking for you. The answers you come up with will be more meaningful to your life than someone else’s analysis. Historical analysis also helps you remember historical events. If you work with primary sources, you will learn about history in a more natural and orderly way than if you just read a textbook. You probably won’t have to spend a lot of time memorizing stuff just to pass a test. When you analyze primary sources, you will find out that resources sometimes conflict with other primary resources. Conflicting views are a necessary part of life in a democracy like ours. Working with primary sources will help you understand conflicting views in your own lives. And there is a bonus: you will become a better reader, writer, and thinker if you spend some time reading and analyzing documents. You can use these skills in every part of your life. Read, analyze, and become your own historian!
A primary source is a document or record containing firsthand information or original data on an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources are usually created by individuals who experienced the event and recorded or wrote about it. Because of this, primary sources usually reflect the viewpoint of the participant or observer. Examples of primary sources include:
Determining whether or not something is a primary source depends on the topic you are researching. Primary sources are almost always produced in the time period you are researching. For example, newspaper articles can be both primary and secondary sources. A newspaper article that recounts the events of the Battle of Gettysburg would be a primary source if it was printed in July of 1863, which is when the battle occurred. A newspaper today could do a story on the Battle of Gettysburg, but because it is so far removed from the event, it wouldn't be considered a primary source.
Randall Library also contains some unpublished materials in its archives and special collections departments. These are primary source materials that are often one-of-a-kind or rare. The University Archives collects materials on the history of UNCW, and Special Collections focuses on the history of Southeastern North Carolina, but both of these collections have significance beyond just our university or our region. For example, if you are researching the civil rights movement, you might use University Archives to investigate how college students in the South responded to this movement. To find these collections, you can use the search box on the Archives and Special Collections webpage, but definitely also contact the University Archives or Special Collections staff. They know best what's in the collections and can tell you if anything they have is relevant to your research. |
Why is it important to use and understand primary sources in studying different historical periods
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