Chances are that you're familiar with a 
variety of primary and secondary sources 
and use them in everyday life. However 
locating primary sources about an 
academic topic can sometimes be 
difficult. 


Primary sources are first-hand accounts 
of an event and are created during the 
time that event took place. 


They can also 
be created retrospectively at a later date 
by a participant in those events. They are 
original documents and usually don't 
describe or analyze other documents. 
They can also be creative works. 


Some examples of primary sources are speeches, laws and 
court documents; diaries, memoirs, 
autobiographies, and letters; works of art, 
novels and plays; documented observations, 
interviews, original research, and data; 
and historical newspapers. 


So how can 
primary sources be used for research? 
They can be used as a focal point of a 
discussion about events, they can be used 
to back up claims or criticisms, they can 
be used as evidence for series and 
research, and they can be used to gain 
historical perspectives on the topic. 


Secondary sources are written by 
scholars or observers after the fact and 
interpret or analyze primary sources or 
events. These sources are at least one 
step removed from what they are 
describing. 

Some examples of secondary 
sources are textbooks, encyclopedias, 
essays, and reviews; magazine or journal 
articles which analyze events or ideas; 
and books which provide a summary of 
events or synthesize information from 
many primary sources. 

So how are 
secondary sources used? They can be used 
to get background information and 
understand the scope of a topic, they can 
be used to see what others have 
discussed or get opinions, you can use 
them to learn how recent events affect 
or fit into the larger picture, and they 
can help you understand the significance 
of events, data, works of literature and 
art. Let's look at an example. 

A primary 
source for a paper about the placebo 
effect could be data from the medical 
trial which is published in academic 
journal. Secondary sources for this topic 
could include books about medication the 
placebo effect and health in general, 
or websites which define various anxiety 
disorders. 


One thing to keep in mind is that the 
sources classification is either primary 
or secondary can change depending on the 
topic that you're studying. For example, 
if you are writing about how the news is 
being represented on the internet a news 
site like CNN might be considered a 
primary source. 

If you're studying news 
on the Internet, 
cnn.com represents the object that 
you're studying. 
However, if you're writing about 
political elections and you find an 
article on cnn.com that analyzes them, 
the article would be considered a 
secondary source since, in this case 
you're studying the elections, an article 
on cnn.com is one step removed from your 
topic. 

For an effective research paper 
try to use both primary sources sources 
that are an original source of data, 
historical information or creative works 
as well as secondary sources: sources 
which summarize and analyze or comment 
on ideas or events.