 When working on an academic research paper, you may be asked to find primary sources and secondary sources, but what does that mean? This tutorial gives examples of both primary and secondary sources and how they can be used in your research. Primary sources are first-hand accounts of someone's direct experience with an event or topic that are created at the time or soon after. Primary sources can also be artifacts or objects from the event or time period. They are original documents or creative works, which means that they do not usually describe or analyze other documents. Examples of primary sources are speeches, laws, court documents, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and letters, works of art, novels, and plays, documented observations, interviews, original research data, and historical newspapers. Primary sources are often used as the focal point of research. They can help you relate to an event or topic by seeing it through the eyes of someone that experienced it first-hand. They can also help you examine a topic or event from different points of view. Secondary sources are written after the fact or event by scholars or observers. They interpret or analyze primary sources or events, which means that they are further removed from what they are describing than primary sources. Examples of secondary sources are textbooks, encyclopedias, literary criticism, reviews, magazine articles written a long time after an event or without first-hand accounts, biographies, and documentaries. Secondary sources provide background information for research. They can be used to help the researcher understand the significance and how an event fits into the larger historical picture. Stop. Think about context. A source could be both a primary or a secondary source, depending on the context of your research. A newspaper article is most often considered a primary source because it documents an event as it happens or shortly thereafter. However, if an article is written a long time after an event, or if it includes analysis of the event, then it's a secondary source. For example, a newspaper article written on January 20, 2021 about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's inauguration is a primary source. A newspaper article written on January 20, 2021 about John F. Kennedy's inauguration is a secondary source. Remember, using both primary and secondary sources make for a well-rounded research paper. If you have any questions, please contact Library Media Center.