English Research Guide

Is it a Primary or Secondary Source?

From https://lib.guides.umd.edu/researchusingprimarysources

Types of Secondary Sources

As you conduct literary research, be sure to ask your instructor what type of information they are looking for you to use to support your arguments and analysis.  Are you to use scholarly, research-based articles?  Trade or general readership sources/sites?  What about primary sources?  The chart below analyzes the different types of secondary research/sources.

A better way to think about your sources

Explanation	Factual information that provides an overview of or context for a topic.	Sources that will be analyzed or interpreted	Critical views from other scholars or commentators that can be agreed with, disagreed with, or built upon.	The method and theories used to shape a research methodology, approach, or analytical lens
Examples	Encyclopedia entries, overviews in books, statistics, historical newspaper articles	Text of a novel, field observation, focus group data, interviews, performances, results from an experiment	Scholarly articles, books, critical reviews, editorials	references to theorists (Foucault, Said) or theories (feminism, critical race theory), information on a research methodology
Where are you most likely to use these sources?	Introduction	Body, Results section	Body, sometimes in the Introduction or a Literature Review	Methods section, sometimes referenced in the Introduction or the Body

Rather than only think about whether a source is primary, secondary, or tertiary; instead think about how you are going to use that source. If you have at least one source in each category, your writing will be stronger and your arguments will be better supported.

Sources can serve more than one function!

For instance, a journal article could:

• provide background information on a topic
• serve as an exhibit you will analyze
• make an argument for you to respond to
• or could include a method for you to follow in organizing your own data gathering and reporting

However, some sources are focused on a single function.  For example, an encyclopedia entry on “Alzheimer's disease” is likely to only serve as background information.

Credits:

The BEAM method is from: Bizup, Joseph. “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing.” Rhetoric Review 27.1 (2008): 72-86.
This page is adapted from "Source Functions: Background, Exhibits, Argument, Method (BEAM)" from the University of California Merced Library.

Image Credits:

BEAM title image: 10. Column and Beam Details - Hantz House, 855 Fairview Drive, Fayetteville, Washington County, AR Drawings from Survey HABS AR-54 created by the Historic American Buildings Survey is in the Public Domain.
Background icon: Investigation created by Nhor Phai is used under Flaticon.com's license.
Exhibit icon: Encyclopedia created by Talha Dogar is used under Flaticon.com's license.
Argument icon: Application created by Freepik is used under Flaticon.com's license.
Method icon: Pie chart created by Freepik is used under Flaticon.com's license.

Evaluating Web Pages by UC Berkeley

Evaluating Journals