Writing & Citing
A collection of campus and online resources to help you with your writing and citation.
Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary Sources
Primary Sources
Primary sources are materials created at the time of an event. The author is describing their own research.
- Autobiographies
- Diaries
- Interviews
- Letters
- Speeches
- Photographs
- Musical scores
Examples of Primary Sources
Examples of Primary Sources
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Search Tips
Search Tips for Primary Sources
To search for primary sources, use the name of the subject and description of the source:
- "Mass incarceration" AND Speeches
- Feminists AND Diary
- "Gulf War Syndrome" AND Study
- "Hillary Clinton" AND Interview
- "Martin Luther King" AND Speech
Secondary Sources
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources. Secondary sources reflect an author's opinion.
- Biographies
- Books
- Criticism
- Essays
- Histories
- Reviews
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Examples of Secondary Sources
Examples of Secondary Sources
- Biographies
- Books that discuss or analyze a topic
- Commentaries
- Criticisms
- Encyclopedias
- Indexes and abstracts
- Journal or magazine articles from previous research
- Newspaper articles
- Reviews of art, books, movies, etc.
- Textbooks
Search Tips
Search Tips for Secondary Sources
To search for secondary sources, use the name of the subject and the description of the source:
- "Ain't I a woman?" AND Review
- "American Revolutionary War" and Book
- "Harriet Tubman" AND Biography
- "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" AND Criticism
- Terrorism AND Book
Free Online Primary Sources
- Internet Archive Digital books collection
- Internet History Sourcebook The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use.
- Project Gutenberg Offers over 45,000 free eBooks
- Slaves and the Courts, 1740 to 1860 This collection consists of 105 library books and manuscripts, totalling approximately 8,700 pages drawn principally from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, with a few from the General Collections.
- UT Ransom Center Digital Collections These collections represent just a sample of the diverse holdings in literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts at the Ransom Center.
Databases
- JSTOR Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
- Civil Rights & Social Justice This link opens in a new window Publications from the Commission on Civil Rights, legislative histories on landmark legislation, briefs from relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases, and more. Covers civil rights in the United States as their legal protections and definitions are expanded to cover more and more Americans.
- Comparative Archaeology Database This link opens in a new window Comparative research in archaeology draw upon datasets from all parts of the world. These datasets document the material evidence of the human past and comprise the primary sources for archaeological research.
- Gun Regulation and Legislation in America This link opens in a new window Brings together essential periodicals, compiled legislative histories, CRS reports, Congressional hearings, United States Supreme Court briefs, monographs, and other related materials on the difficult and controversial topic of regulating firearms in the United States.
- Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window Brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Our cases go into the 20th century, because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery.
- South Asia Open Archives (SAOA) on JSTOR This link opens in a new window Historical and contemporary primary sources in the arts, humanities and social sciences from and about South Asia.
Activities
- Jeopardy with Primary & Secondary Sources Matching Game for Primary & Secondary Sources This is a fun way to learn the difference between primary & secondary sources, match the item to either primary source or secondary source.
- Matching Game for Primary & Secondary Sources This is a fun way to learn the difference between primary & secondary sources, match the item to either primary source or secondary source.
Other Sources
- Library of Congress "Why use primary sources?" Primary sources provide a window into the past—unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific period under study, produced by people who lived during that period. Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them a very real sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era.
Content created by librarians at TWU.