Primary ResourcesSecondary ResourcesWhat’s the difference?By Brittney Matthews

Have you ever had a professor ask you for primary resources or secondary resources? If you were a bit confused by this, like I once was, this PowerPoint presentation should help clear things up a bit.

First: Primary Sources

A primary source document is a document that has not been changed or altered in any way. It is an original.

Some examples are: diaries, speeches, manuscripts, creative works, relicts or artifacts.

Here are a few image examples:

Second: Secondary Sources

A secondary sources would be, for example, an article a teacher may ask you to read. The article will have references to primary source documents. That is what secondary source document is: a document that analyzes or interprets primary source documents.

Some examples would be: text books, articles, commentaries, and critiques.

Some image examples:

So there you have it. We could not have secondary sources if it weren’t for primary sources. We use primary sources to analyze and study and create new documents called secondary sources.