Wikipedia:Identifying and using primary sources: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:11, 4 June 2011

Revision as of 18:58, 22 June 2011

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===Characteristics of a secondary source===

* A secondary source is based on primary sources. Secondary sources are not required to provide you with a bibliography, but you should have some reason to believe that the material in the source is not entirely new. For example, century-old love letters on display at a museum are primary sources; a secondary source might analyze the contents of these letters. The fact that the analysis is based on these primaryletters would be evident from the description in the source, even if the paper contained no footnotes.

* A secondary source is significantly separated from these primary sources. A reporter's notebook is an (unpublished) primary source, and the news story published by the reporter based on those notes is also a primary source. This is because the sole purpose of the notes in the notebook is to produce the news story. If a journalist later reads dozens of these primary-source news stories and uses those articles to write a book about a major event, then this resulting work is a secondary source.

* A secondary source ''usually'' provides analysis, commentary, evaluation, context, and interpretation. It is this act of going beyond simple description, and telling us the meaning behind the simple facts, that makes them valuable to Wikipedia.