ShmoopTube

00:01

We speak student!

00:06

Checking Sources on the Web

00:09

[ dog barks ]

00:10

What's the difference between a primary and a secondary source?

00:15

Let's use three examples.

00:16

A primary source -- If you're studying, say,

00:19

Renaissance art.

00:21

A primary source is a work of Renaissance art.

00:24

It is Michelangelo painted something or sculpted something.

00:29

That is the primary source.

00:30

The secondary source is something that is written

00:33

about the primary source.

00:35

And it goes with texts, too.

00:37

A primary source might be a document from the government.

00:41

It might be John Hancock's signature.

00:44

A secondary source is something that is about that primary source.

00:47

"John Hancock was actually not the first person to sign it.

00:51

He just had the biggest signature."

00:53

Whatever that is. That's a secondary source.

00:55

Primary sources are the best to cite

00:58

because there's no -- It just is.

01:01

John Hancock's signature is big.

01:03

You're looking at it right there and you're saying,

01:06

"Hey, check it out. I'm looking at this."

01:07

It's basically as objective as you can get

01:10

because this is what exists.

01:11

But then the secondary source is gonna interpret that

01:13

and kind of give you more information about it or whatever.

01:16

And that can be trustworthy,

01:17

but you just have to make sure that there's no bias in it.

01:19

So you're looking at the primary source which is

01:21

what was created at the time at the scene.

01:24

And the secondary source is describing it.

01:25

And there's quality hierarchies

01:27

about secondary sources, meaning

01:29

if it was written contemporaneously with Michelangelo

01:32

and it was his uncle

01:34

who hung out with him and cleaned his shop

01:36

and he wrote about Michelangelo's work habits,

01:38

that's gonna carry a lot more weight than

01:39

a PHD writing about that 300 years later

01:43

when they have all kinds of gauze in front of them.

01:46

Exactly. And it's just kind of like a game of telephone, right?

01:47

Because that PHD student probably read

01:50

the things that the uncle said

01:52

about the piece of art.

01:53

That were repatriated by priests

01:55

who wrote it on lambskin

01:56

and then in 100 years, it burned down,

01:57

and someone else did that and they omitted every third word

02:00

to save space and so on.

02:01

So on the Internet, most of what you're reading is secondary sources.

02:04

We should say that.

02:05

But you can find primary sources on the Internet.

02:08

And, for example, if you're writing

02:10

an essay about how blogging has changed the way we write,

02:16

a blog is then a primary source

02:19

because that's the topic.

02:21

I might take so-and-so's blog about baking.

02:25

That's a primary source.

02:26

One of her blog entries. Or his.

02:28

[ laughs ]

02:29

But if I then read an article

02:31

called "Blogging in the 21st Century,"

02:34

that's a secondary source.

02:36

So primary sources don't have to be

02:37

from the Renaissance. They don't have to be from

02:39

early America. They can be contemporary primary sources.

02:43

But it depends on what your topic is.

02:45

If your topic is baking,

02:47

then the blog actually becomes a secondary source.

02:49

Because baking --

02:51

This isn't the blog entry about baking.

02:54

So depending on what your topic is,

02:56

different things become primary and secondary sources.

03:00

[ pen writing ]

03:02

What is credibility?

03:04

What are the four categories we deploy in determining credibility?

03:09

Why is it so important to understand objectivity?

03:13

Can Wikipedia be credible?

03:16

How can you check?

03:22

All right, next.

Full Transcript