From the first post:
There are three basic ways to divide information sources for academic purposes. These are:
- sources classified by audience
- sources classified by closeness
- sources classified by quality measure
These divisions refer to non-fiction (with a few exceptions.)
Sources classified by closeness
The second way to classify academic sources is by closeness. Closeness to what? Closeness to the original event, original time period, original research, or original idea.
The two main types of sources classified by closeness are:
- primary
- secondary
This classification usually refers to non-fiction, but does occasionally include fiction (for example: using a Greek play as a primary source for a history article.)
Primary sources are those that are closest to an original event, original time, original research or original idea.
Examples:
- An eyewitness account in print, audio or video, including oral histories.
- An original document such as letters, contracts, deeds, and even an early graphic novel written in Greek about the labors of Hercules.
- A YouTube or news video shot by someone who was there (or by security cameras, CCTV, etc.)
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Memoirs and autobiographies
- A report on research written by the people who did the research, usually published as a journal article, but sometimes published as a monograph.
- A news or documentary photograph
- An object, such as a mummy (from the Louvre Museum, Paris), a painting, or an old car
Primary sources can be popular, scholarly or trade, but in history, they are often popular.
Adapted primary sources
Adaptations of primary sources include photographs and reproductions of original objects, and translations from an original language. Adapted primary sources provide access to primary sources such as paintings, mummies, manuscripts, statues, Greek inscriptions, and buildings that are inaccessible for a variety of reasons.
Adaptations usually count as a primary source, but check with your professor to be sure.
HOWEVER: you must use adapted sources produced by reputable groups such as museums, universities, respected publishers and so on. For most undergraduate research, you can use Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Flickr Creative Commons for images IF the image includes source information and shows copyright information. When using Creative commons, make sure you stay in the free section, and cite the image as the license requires.
Examples of adapted sources:
- A photograph of an ancient Roman statue
- A digital image of a pioneer woman’s diary
- A translation of an ancient Greek play.
- Digitized images of original documents plus transcriptions
It’s still best to look at the original source if you can, because:
- when you adapt or reproduce something, you change it
- you can’t tell what the original is made of or how it was made
- in the case of photographs and 3-D objects, you can only see one side
Virtual reality techniques provide 3-D views, but still don’t capture information such as texture, ink composition, material, and rarely show pen marks, chisel marks, etc.
When using translations, either use critical editions or choose reputable publishers such as university presses and other academic publishers. (In critical editions, the translator tells you why s/he made the choices s/he did in when translating the text.)
Secondary sources are further away from the original event, time, research or idea. They may be::
- Interpretations (for example: critical studies of art or literary works or biographies)
- Revision of primary works (for example: The Declaration of Independence in Translation: What It Really Means (Kids’ Translations))
- Opinion articles (for example: television commentary, opinion pieces, political blogs, etc.)
Primary & secondary works can be popular or scholarly or trade.
Examples:
- Popular & primary
- a news account written (or filmed) by an eyewitness
- memoir or autobiography
- Popular & secondary
- a news report written by someone who was not at the event
- Salt Lake Tribune (note: news photos with secondary sources are usually primary because they were taken by someone at the scene)
- a biography
- a news report written by someone who was not at the event
- Scholarly & primary
- a scientific article written by the people who did the research
- a research article on an historical topic, based on primary sources
- a monograph
- Scholarly & secondary
- a book that interprets the research of others for a scholarly audience (It can be very difficult to decide if a history books is primary & scholarly or secondary & scholarly. Most instructors will accept either, but check to be sure.)
- a literature review (this can be just a list of sources, but usually, the author reviews previous articles & books in a field and uses them to discuss the current state of the field.)
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