concerning this week we have learned a new lesson about Primary and secondary sources .we said that The materials, evidence, or data used in your research are known as sources. As foundations of your research, these sources of information are typically classified into two broad categories: primary and secondary.
| Discipline | Primary Source | Secondary Source |
| Archeology | farming tools | treatise on innovative analysis of Neolithic artifacts |
| Art | sketch book | conference proceedings on French Impressionists |
| History | Emancipation Proclamation (1863) | book on the anti-slavery struggle |
| Journalism | interview | biography of publisher Randolph Hearst |
| Law | legislative hearing | law review article on anti-terrorism legislation |
| Literature | novel | literary criticism on Desolation Angels |
| Music | score of an opera | biography of the composer Mozart |
| Political Science | public opinion poll | newspaper article on campaign finance reform |
| Rhetoric | speech | editorial comment on Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech |
| Sociology | voter registry | Ph.D. dissertation on Hispanic voting patterns |
Primary Sources
A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about
an event, object, person or work of art. Characteristically, primary
sources are contemporary to the events and people described and show
minimal or no mediation between the document/artifact and its creator.
As to the format, primary source materials can be written and
non-written, the latter including sound, picture, and artifact. Examples
of primary sources include: 1- personal correspondence and diaries
2- works of art and literature
3-speeches and oral histories
4-audio and video recordings
5-photographs and posters
6-newspaper ads and stories
7- laws and legislative hearings
8 census or demographic records
9- plant and animal specimens
10-coins and tools
Secondary Sources
A secondary source, in contrast, lacks the immediacy of a
primary record. As materials produced sometime after an event happened,
they contain information that has been interpreted, commented, analyzed
or processed in such a way that it no longer conveys the freshness of
the original. History textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias,
interpretive journal articles, and book reviews are all examples of
secondary sources. Secondary sources are often based on primary sources.The chart below illustrates possible uses of primary and secondary sources by discipline:
CONCLUSION:
Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.
A primary source is an original object or document, first-hand information.
finally we knew the difference between hte primary and secondary source, we said a primary source is from the original source and a secondary is no more fresh from the original such a history book, encyclopedia and a dictionary.
