What are primary, secondary, and tertiary sources?
Answer
Primary Source
A firsthand account that is NOT filtered, analyzed, evaluated, or interpreted.
Some examples:
- Diaries, memoirs and autobiographies
- Patents, raw data, and lab reports
- Newspapers
- Letters and personal correspondence
- Original works of art (for example, paintings, sculptures, films, novels)
Secondary Source
A work that comments, discusses, evaluates, and/or interprets information.
Some examples:
- Articles in scholarly/academic journals (peer-reviewed studies, editorials, reviews)
- Articles in trade/professional journals
- Scholarly/academic or popular/mainstream books of criticism and interpretation
- Academic theses and dissertations
Tertiary Source
An overview or compilation of primary and/or secondary sources.
Some examples:
- Abstracts and bibliographies
- Atlases, timelines and chronologies
- Dictionaries and glossaries
- Handbooks, guidebooks, and manuals
- AI-generated background research texts from tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Gemini
|
Source |
Example |
|
Primary
|
“Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery |
|
Secondary
|
A literary review of “Anne of Green Gables” with a feminist interpretation |
|
Tertiary
|
A textbook compiling information about commonly studied novels, including a chapter on “Anne of Green Gables” |
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