Week 4: Evaluating Sources I
Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources
Overview
This week you will categorize sources as primary, secondary, and tertiary and identify the context for using these sources in your research projects.
Generally, we put sources to three major categories: primary, secondary, tertiary. Sources are assigned to these categories according to their format (e.g., books, articles, encyclopedia entry), by their content/audience (e.g., popular magazine, news, social media), and by the context in which they were created.
Primary sources can be defined as “original” data or evidence created by the authors. These sources vary in format depending on the discipline in which they are being used. For example, in science, primary sources are generated by scientists doing experiments. The primary sources are the results of the experiments. In English, primary sources are the texts (e.g., books or poems) that scholars are analyzing, such as the novels of a particular writer. And in sociology or history, the primary sources could be the interviews recorded and transcribed by a researcher.
Secondary sources can be defined as those that provide an interpretation or analysis. Tertiary sources summarize primary and secondary sources.
The type of sources that you need for your projects will depend on the types of research questions you are asking and the arguments that you are making.
You may use one or all of these types of sources throughout the research process. In particular, consult primary sources for your project in this course because these sources provide important first-account evidence for your topic of inquiry.
Readings
Section I: Finding sources
Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M., Bizup, J., & Fitzgerald, W. T. (2016). The craft of research (4th ed.). University of Chicago Press.
- Chapter 5: From problems to sources (pp. 65-84).
Maccallum, L. (2020). Choosing and using sources: A guide to academic research. (1st Canadian edition). Ohio State University.
- Chapter 7: Categorizing sources
- Chapter 10: Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.
Section II: Research and feelings
Maniotes, L. (2017, July 17). Dr. Carol Kuhlthau Distinguished Professor Emerita talks of her research on the ISP [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/gytquheF7Aw (19:58).
Before class activities
Key questions to ask while reading and watching
- What steps do I take when I am searching for information?
- How do I feel at each stage of this information searching process?
- What type of sources do I typically use in my academic projects?
- Why do I use these types of sources?
“Pile of words”: Group and label key concepts
Organize into two lists of similar terms and label each list (include definition of each label).
Remember: You may already understand some of these ideas relatively well and others may be new to you—you are encouraged to look up (e.g., in a dictionary or encyclopedia) the unfamiliar concepts in order to create your lists.
Make note of your reasons for grouping the ideas together as you will share them in class. These are self-paced individual activities, for which there are no right or wrong answers. The instructor will not grade this work.
Predict a learning outcome
After class activities
After class, annotate each reading for key ideas. For videos and podcasts, you can annotate the transcript.
Summarize the author’s key ideas from each reading. Highlight the following information:
- Purpose of the reading;
- Scope (the extent of the study);
- Thesis (the main argument[s]);
- Outcome(s) and conclusion.
Respond to the following statement about the readings: do you agree or disagree with the statement and why?
“It is important to understand that the classifications of primary, secondary, and tertiary are not absolute but relative to a researcher’s project.” (Booth et al., 2016, p. 67).
Did this reading provide any inspiration or insights you can use in this or any of your other classes? If yes, what is the inspiration and/or what are the insights?
