21.4 Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
The three labels for information sources in this category are, respectively, primary sources, secondary sources, and tertiary sources:
- Primary or firsthand information (information in its original form).
- Secondary or secondhand information (a restatement, analysis, or interpretation of original information).
- Tertiary or third-hand information (a summary or repackaging of original information, often based on secondary information that has been published).
Here are examples to illustrate the first-handedness, second-handedness, and third-handedness of information:
Primary source: Original, firsthand information
J. D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye
Secondary source: Secondhand information
A book review of Catcher in the Rye, even if the reviewer has a different opinion than anyone else has ever published about the book; he or she is still just reviewing the original work and all the information about the book here is secondary.
Tertiary source: Thirdhand information
Wikipedia page about J. D. Salinger based on reviews of his work
When you make distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, you are relating the information itself to the context in which it was created. Understanding that relationship is an important skill that you’ll need in college, as well as in the workplace. Noting the relationship between creation and context helps us understand the “big picture” in which information operates and helps us figure out which information we can depend on. That’s a big part of thinking critically, a major benefit of becoming an educated person.
Primary Sources – Because it is in its original form, the information in primary sources has reached us from its creators without going through any filter. We get it firsthand. Here are some examples that are often used as primary sources:
- Any literary work, including novels, plays, and poems
- Breaking news
- Diaries
- Advertisements
- Music and dance performances
- Eyewitness accounts, including photographs and recorded interviews
- Artworks
- Data
- Blog entries that are autobiographical
- Scholarly blogs that provide data or are highly theoretical, even though they contain no autobiography
- Artifacts such as tools, clothing, or other objects
- Original documents such as tax returns, marriage licenses, and transcripts of trials
- Websites, although many are secondary
- Buildings
- Correspondence, including email
- Records of organizations and government agencies
- Journal articles that report research for the first time (at least the parts about the new research, plus their data)
Secondary Source – These sources are translated, repackaged, restated, analyzed, or interpreted original information that is a primary source. Thus, the information comes to us secondhand, or through at least one filter. Here are some examples that are often used as secondary sources:
- An article or website that critiques a novel, play, painting, or piece of music
- An article or website that synthesizes expert opinion and several eyewitness accounts for a new understanding of an event
- News reports that draw on firsthand accounts
- Biographies
Tertiary Source – These sources further repackage the original information because they index, condense, or summarize the original.
Typically, by the time tertiary sources are developed, there have been many secondary sources prepared on their subjects, and you can think of tertiary sources as information that comes to us “third-hand.” Tertiary sources are usually publications that you are not intended to read from cover to cover but to dip in and out of for the information you need. You can think of them as a good place for background information to start your research but a bad place to end up. Here are some examples that are often used as tertiary sources:
- Almanacs
- Dictionaries
- Guidebooks, including the one you are now reading
- Survey articles
- Timelines
- Bibliographies
- Encyclopedias, including Wikipedia
- Most textbooks
Tertiary sources are usually not acceptable as cited sources in college research projects because they are so far from firsthand information. That’s why most professors don’t want you to use Wikipedia as a citable source: the information in Wikipedia is far from original information. Other people have considered it, decided what they think about it, rearranged it, and summarized it–all of which is what your professors want you, not another author, to do with information in your research projects.
Continue Reading: 21.5 Popular, Professional, and Scholarly Sources
