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CORE 1000: The Frontiers of Global Catholicism

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

Primary Sources 

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of events or time periods in history. Types of primary sources include:

  • speeches
  • interviews
  • official documents
  • diaries
  • letters 
  • memoirs
  • works of literature
  • articles (newspaper, magazine, journal)
  • government publications
  • pamphlets
  • manuscripts
  • photographs
  • audio/video recordings 
  • objects of material culture, art, etc.

Secondary Sources

A secondary source describes, interprets, evaluates, and/or analyzes primary sources.  A secondary source is at least one step removed from an event or time period.  However, secondary sources may include pictures, quotations, graphs, or data from primary sources with the text.  Types of secondary sources include:

  • biographies
  • dissertations
  • textbooks
  • books
  • articles (magazine, journal)
  • reviews
  • histories
  • criticisms
  • commentaries

Tertiary Sources

Tertiary sources might compile information from primary and secondary sources, but without doing much to interpret them. These might include reference books such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, etc. Sources like Wikipedia would also be considered tertiary. These may lead you to secondary sources that you will need for this assignment, but will not fill the requirement for a secondary source.