The Gospels are indeed SECONDARY SOURCES!

Tertiary sources, are historical explanations and examinations based on the prior two.

“Where a primary source presents material from a first-hand witness to a phenomenon, and a secondary source provides commentary, analysis and criticism of primary sources, a tertiary source is a selection and compilation of primary and secondary sources.”

Most Historical Sources are Secondary. A Primary source is a contemporary first hand account.

This is important because you need to tell the bias of the author; when Paul Revere wrote about the massacre of British colonists in Massachusetts at the hands of the redcoats. It was a horrible tale of unreasonable slaughter. The real event was more like a small military unit caught by an armed mob trying to defend themselves, and remain in military order. We take Paul Revere’s account because, it was published and widely distributed, he was a witness, and it favored the American side. It is not a totally accurate account, but it is a good first person account.

When you write a history book you do the best job when you take several primary sources about the event and give a balanced point of view. You look at the British Officer’s account as well as what Paul Revere wrote. If you don’t then you work isn’t balanced. If you take the work of others then you are just continuing the bias put into the work by them. So it is always necessary to inspect the primary sources before using the secondary sources.

Now when you tell me what subject you are really asking a question about you can email me and I can give you an answer relating to that subject.

A secondary source is a textbook talking about the Declaration of Independence.

that other author’s work is the primary source

now if somebody quotes from my book the quote from that other author, then my book is a secondary source.

it’s a good idea to always check the primary source because the secondary source may have quoted out of context, or even misquoted!

Primary source is when you take facts and stats straight from an article with empirical data backing up the source.

secondary source is when you take people’s opinions and perspective and use it as an argument for your paper(usually have no solid evidences saying if the perspective is right or wrong) Try to avoid secondary source if you want to write a good paper.

Secondary sources have been made from primary sources and known facts, but were not mad ein the time period – Book on WWII based on newspaper article.

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