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Definition
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Characteristics
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Examples
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Primary Sources
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Original documents created or experienced concurrently with the event being researched.
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First hand observations, contemporary accounts of the event. Viewpoint of the time.
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Interviews, news footage, data sets, original research, speeches, diaries, letters, creative works, photographs
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Secondary Sources
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Works that analyze, assess, or interpret a historical event, an era, or a phenomenon. Generally uses primary sources.
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Interpretation of information, usually written well after an event. Offers reviews or critiques.
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Research studies, literary criticism, book reviews, biographies, textbooks
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Tertiary Sources
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Sources that identify, locate, and synthesize primary AND secondary sources.
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Reference works, collections of lists of primary and secondary sources, finding tools for sources.
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Encyclopedias, bibliographies, dictionaries, manuals, textbooks, fact books
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From LMU's Primary Sources