Primary Sources

–Material written or produced in the actual time being investigated. This implies that the researcher cannot go further back to any existing sources for this source.

–Examples:

•Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts, memoirs, autobiographies, government records, records of organizations

•Published materials (books and journal/newspaper articles) written at the time about a particular event

•Documentary: photographs, audio recordings, movies or videos

•Public opinion polls, field notes, scientific experiments, artifacts

•Reprinted primary sources

•Maps, oral histories postcards, court records, paintings, sculptures, consumer surveys, patents, schematic drawings, technical reports, personal accounts, jewelry, private papers, deeds, wills, proceedings, census data (Primary vs. Secondary Sources)

 

Secondary Sources

–Records generated by an event but written by non-participants in the event. Based on or derived from primary sources, but they have been interpreted or analyzed.

–Examples

•Encyclopedias, chronologies, fact books

•Biographies, monographs, dissertations

•General histories

•Most journal articles (except those written at the time)

•Most published books (except those published at the time, reprints of primary sources, or autobiographies)

 

Where to find primary sources:

Annals of America ([REF] E173 .A793 1978)
American Decades Primary Sources ([REF] E169.1 .A471977 2004)
Online Catalog – subject keyword search: Sources or narratives
American Memory Collections (Library of Congress)
Infomine (infomine.ucr.edu)

 

Full text databases and Catalog

www.lahc.edu/databases

Academic OneFile – powerful search strategies, limited in depth
JSTOR – deep coverage of subjects, weak search strategies

Searching for secondary sources using library catalog:

(immigration OR immigrants) AND states, click Subject (keyword)

Add either (sources or narratives) to your search. Still search by Subject (keyword). Revise search terms according to the results you get.

 

Citations

Plagiarism can be avoided very simply: when you paraphrase a quotation, cite. When you directly quote, cite. When you state a fact that is not common knowledge, find a reliable source and cite it.

Chicago style:

Superscript, footnotes or endnotes, bibliography

Good introduction: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/

Rules for many sources http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0001.html

Sample paper: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0007.html