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Section Menu
-
- Communication and Visual Arts
- Major in Public Relations
- Major in Media Studies
- Major in Digital Journalism
- Minors in Communication
- Visual Arts
- Student Success
- Experiential Learning Opportunities
- Media Information Centre
- Our Faculty
- Contact Us
- Environment, Culture and Society
- Literatures, Languages, and Performing Arts
- Philosophy, History and Politics
- Chair's Message
- History
- Degree Options
- Courses
- Student Success
- Awards and Scholarships
- Handbook for History Students
- Introduction - Handbook
- Why Study History?
- Varieties of History
- Historian's Work
- Pros, Amateurs and others
- Careers
- Libraries and Research
- Taking Notes
- Formulating a Topic
- Compiling a Bibliography
- Primary Sources
- Secondary Sources
- Need for Recent Sources
- Where to Start
- Note-taking
- Shape of the Essay
- Style of the Essay
- Checking the Essay
- Documentation
- Bibliographies and Footnotes
- Plagiarism
- Writing Essay Examinations
- Title Pages and Formatting
- Citation Generators
- Examples
- Citation Formatting
- History Links
- Philosophy
- Politics
- Our Faculty
- Contact Us
- Psychology
- Communication and Visual Arts
Primary Sources
Primary sources were written or created in the historical period under investigation or soon thereafter. Official or private documents, such as letters and diaries, contemporary newspapers, and magazines are all regarded as primary sources. Carvings, paintings, illustrations, sculpture, clothing, tools, architecture can be interpreted for their meaning and revelations about human civilization in a given epoch.
Primary sources are ALWAYS the foundation for solid historical research, as every academic secondary source is firmly grounded to primary sources in someway (otherwise in effect the author is simply making it up as he/she goes along). This is not to say that primary sources should be accepted without hesitation, as no one who has ever created a primary source has done so as a perfectly neutral actor or with a perfect comprehension of their own time. Instead primary sources much be read critically and skeptically with the relevant constraints in mind such as the authors agenda, the lack of information known to the author etc.