Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.

Things tend to be different between primary (firsthand) and secondary (secondhand) sources, and that's what this Common Core Standard asks students to realize. For starters, primary sources tend to be more emotional and more descriptive, since the writer was there and could see everything around them, while secondary sources sound more emotionally detached and generally stay away from descriptive language. Primary sources also tend to contain more of the author's own thoughts and opinions, while secondary sources are more objective and look at multiple people's thoughts and opinions.