Wikipedia:Identifying and using primary sources: Difference between revisions
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==You are allowed to use primary sources... carefully==
Material based on primary sources can be valuable and appropriate additions to articles.
Primary sources may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements that any educated person—with access to the source but without specialist knowledge—will be able to verify are directly supported by the source. This person does not have to be able to determine that the material in the article or in the primary source is True™. The goal is only that the person could compare the primary source with the material in the Wikipedia article, and agree that the primary source actually, directly says just what we're saying it does.
;Examples
* ''An article about a novel:'' The novel itself is an acceptable primary source for information about the plot, the names of the characters, or other contents in the book: Any educated person can read Jane Austen's ''Pride and Prejudice'' and discover that the main character's name is Elizabeth. It is not an acceptable source for claims about book's style, themes, foreshadowing, symbolic meaning, values, importance, or other matters of critical analysis, interpretation, or evaluation: No one will find a direct statement of this material in the book.
* ''An article about a painting:'' The painting itself is an acceptable primary source for information about the colors, shapes, and figures in the painting. Any educated person can look at Georgia O'Keeffe's ''Cow Skull: Red, White, and Blue'', and see that it is a painting of a cow's skull on a background of red, white, and blue. It is not an acceptable source for claims about the artist's motivation, allusions or relationships to other works, the meaning of the figures in the painting, or any other matters of analysis, interpretation, or evaluation: Looking at the painting does not tell anyone why the artist chose these colors, whether she meant to evoke religious or patriotic sentiments, or what motivated the composition.
==Secondary sources for notability==
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