domingo, 14 de noviembre de 2010

Practicing Source-ery

Sidney Silverman Library at Bergen Community College (NJ) offers a straightforward definition of the difference between primary and secondary sources. "Primary sources are original materials such as autobiographies, poems, diaries, documents, research articles, original data, or an original creation such as a piece of art."  Materials that "describe, explain or interpret primary sources," they explain, are secondary sources. "These include literature criticism, biographies, books about a topic, reviews, encyclopedias and dictionaries."
In Primary vs. Secondary, they also provide this useful checklist of examples:
Primary SourcesSecondary Sources
autobiographybiography
painting or object of artarticle reviewing or criticizing the art
personal diary or lettersbook about the person or event
treaty (government document)essay interpreting the document
poem, novel, short story, etc.literary criticism of the work
firsthand observer accounts of eventreport on event years later
play, film, television show, performancebiography of the writer
speech given by a personcommentary on the speech
research report by researchersinterpretation of the research
photographsexplanation of photographs


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