History 125 Course Guide

When doing any type of job it is important to use the right tool for the right job. This is true of scholarship and research. While searching, collecting, and analyzing information it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different types of sources which include primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

Primary sources typically allow researchers to get as close as possible to original ideas, events, and empirical research as possible.In the case of history we look at tools that provide evidence of a particular time period or subject.

Secondary sources typically analyze, review, or summarize information in primary resources or other secondary resources. These sources can be further divided into scholarly, popular, or trade.

Tertiary sources typically provide overviews of topics. They are often characterized by a genre as "Reference" books and include tools such as encyclopedias, dictionaries and almanacs.

These definitions are somewhat imprecise due to the fact that the type of information that they provide depends upon how these sources are used. For example, the modern Encyclopædia Britannica is an extremely useful tertiary source that can be utilized to get background information about a subject. Additionally, the 1st edition of Encyclopædia Britannica,  first published between 1768 and 1771 can give important evidence of what people thought about a topic such as natural history.

Patrick Rael, "Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students,"(Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, 2004).  www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/