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English, Language Arts, Literature, & Linguistics

A guide for English, language arts, literature, and linguistics research at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas

Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary Sources


Handwritten letter from Bramford to Nelson

Primary Sources

Primary sources are materials created at the time of an event. The author is describing their own research.

  • Autobiographies
  • Diaries
  • Interviews
  • Letters
  • Speeches
  • Photographs
  • Musical scores

Examples of Primary Sources


Examples of Primary Sources

  • Artifacts: clothing, coins, furniture, pottery, etc.
  • Audio/Visual recordings
  • Autobiographies
  • Census and demograpic records
  • Diaries
  • Dissertations
  • Experiments, clinical trials
  • Government documents
  • Interviews
  • Journal articles/original research
  • Legal documents
  • Letters and correspondence
  • Manuscripts
  • Maps and atlases (contemporary)
  • Memoirs
  • News footage
  • Official records
  • Pamphlets
  • Papers delivered at conferences
  • Photographs
  • Posters
  • Speeches

Search Tips


Search Tips for Primary Sources

To search for primary sources, use the name of the subject and description of the source:

  • "Mass incarceration" AND Speeches
  • Feminists AND Diary
  • "Gulf War Syndrome" AND Study
  • "Hillary Clinton" AND Interview
  • "Martin Luther King" AND Speech

Secondary Sources

 

old books on a shelf

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources. Secondary sources reflect an author's opinion.

  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Criticism
  • Essays
  • Histories
  • Reviews

 

 

 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Examples of Secondary Sources


Examples of Secondary Sources

  • Biographies
  • Books that discuss or analyze a topic
  • Commentaries
  • Criticisms
  • Encyclopedias
  • Indexes and abstracts
  • Journal or magazine articles from previous research
  • Newspaper articles
  • Reviews of art, books, movies, etc.
  • Textbooks

Search Tips


Search Tips for Secondary Sources

To search for secondary sources, use the name of the subject and the description of the source:

  • "Ain't I a woman?" AND Review
  • "American Revolutionary War" and Book
  • "Harriet Tubman" AND Biography
  • "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" AND Criticism
  • Terrorism AND Book

Free Online Primary Sources

Databases

Activities

Other Sources

Content created by librarians at TWU.