Middle School/Upper School Research: Home

Primary Sources: Primary sources are documents, artifacts, and ephemera from the time being studied or analyzed. They are created by individuals who experienced the events or conditions being documented or were created at the time. Primary sources can include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories, which may have been recorded after the fact. Analyzing primary sources is the heart of the historian's craft as they allow historians and scholars to get as close as possible to the people and events of the past.

Secondary Sources: Secondary sources (usually articles or books) analyze, annotate, and review information from primary sources and other secondary sources. Secondary sources are the conversation scholars engage in with history and with each other. Secondary sources are a critical respoitory of information and often discuss findings from primary sources that cannot be accessed elsewhere.

Tertiary Sources: Tertiary sources are encyclopedias or other fast-fact sources, whether digital or in print; tertiary sources present a synthesis of information but do not provide new analysis. They often do not include specific citations, although a general "sources" or "further reading" section is not uncommon. While some tertiary sources are specialized enough that they should be cited in a paper, most tertiary sources, such as a general encyclopedia, are not traditionally cited.