11a Differentiating kinds of sources
Contents:
Using primary and secondary sources
Using scholarly and popular sources
Using older and more current sources
Sources can include data from interviews and surveys, books and articles in print and online, Web sites, films, video and audio content, images, and more.
Using primary and secondary sources
Primary sources provide firsthand knowledge; secondary sources report on or analyze the research of others. Primary sources are basic sources of raw information, including your own field research; films, works of art, or other objects you examine; literary works you read; and eyewitness accounts, photographs, news reports, and historical documents such as letters and speeches. Secondary sources are descriptions or interpretations of primary sources, such as researchers’ reports, reviews, biographies, and encyclopedia articles. Often what constitutes a primary or secondary source depends on the purpose of your research. A critic’s review of a film, for instance, serves as a secondary source if you are writing about the film but as a primary source if you are studying the critic’s writing.
Most research projects draw on both primary and secondary sources. For example, a research-based project on the effects of steroid use on Major League Baseball might draw on primary sources, such as players’ testimony to Congress, as well as secondary sources, such as articles or books by baseball experts.
Using scholarly and popular sources
While nonacademic sources like magazines and personal Web sites can help you get started on a research project, your college writing will often call for you to depend more heavily on authorities in a field, whose work generally appears in scholarly journals in print or online.
| SCHOLARLY | POPULAR |
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(TOP LEFT) MICHIGAN QUARTERLY REVIEW; (TOP RIGHT) REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2013 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF NATURE AMERICA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; (BOTTOM LEFT) COURTESY OF ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY; (BOTTOM RIGHT) SALON.COM
| Title often contains the word Journal | Journal usually does not appear in title |
| Available mainly through libraries and library databases | Available at newsstands or from a home Internet connection |
| Print periodicals have matte (not glossy) pages with few commercial advertisements | Print periodicals have glossy pages with many advertisements |
| Little or no color; few illustrations | Full color; many illustrations |
| Authors identified with academic credentials | Authors are usually journalists or reporters hired by the publication, not academics or experts |
| Summary or abstract appears before beginning of article; articles are fairly long | No summary or abstract; articles are fairly short |
| Articles cite sources and provide bibliographies | Articles may include quotations but do not cite sources or provide bibliographies |
| Examples: Public Opinion Research Quarterly, Journal of the American Medical Association, Ecology and Society | Examples: Scientific American, The New Yorker, Salon |
Many (but not all) scholarly sources are peer reviewed, which means that experts in the discipline read and approve every article before it is published in the journal.
Using older and more current sources
Most projects can benefit from both older, historical sources and more current ones. Some older sources are classics in their fields, essential for understanding the scholarship that follows them. Others are simply dated, though even these works can be useful to researchers who want to see what people wrote and read about a topic in the past. Depending on your purpose, you may rely primarily on recent sources (for example, if you are writing about a new scientific discovery), primarily on historical sources (for instance, if your project discusses a nineteenth-century industrial accident), or on a mixture of both. Whether a source appeared hundreds of years ago or this morning, evaluate it carefully to determine how useful it will be for you (Chapter 12).