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School Projects
Primary vs Secondary Sources Project
Grades 6-12 · 1 week
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A strong school research project starts with knowing what kind of sources you are using. Primary sources come directly from a time, event, person, or experiment, while secondary sources explain, analyze, or summarize primary sources. Learning the difference helps you build stronger evidence and avoid weak or misleading claims. It also helps you decide when you need original evidence and when you need expert interpretation.
Key Facts
- Primary source = original evidence created by someone who witnessed, experienced, or produced the event or information.
- Secondary source = a source that explains, interprets, analyzes, or summarizes primary sources.
- Primary source examples include diary, interview, photograph, speech, letter, government record, artifact, survey data, lab notebook, and original map.
- Secondary source examples include textbook, encyclopedia article, documentary, biography, history article, review essay, news analysis, scholarly article, study guide, and museum exhibit label.
- CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.
- A strong project usually uses both source types: primary sources provide evidence, and secondary sources provide context and interpretation.
Vocabulary
- Primary Source
- A primary source is original evidence from the time, person, event, or study being researched.
- Secondary Source
- A secondary source explains, analyzes, or summarizes information from primary sources or other sources.
- Evidence
- Evidence is information used to support a claim in a research project or argument.
- Citation
- A citation is a note that tells readers where a source came from so they can find and check it.
- Bias
- Bias is a point of view or preference that may affect how information is selected, presented, or interpreted.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Calling every old source a primary source is wrong because age alone does not decide source type. A modern transcript of an old speech may be secondary if it includes analysis, while the original speech text is primary.
- Treating a textbook as primary evidence is wrong because textbooks usually summarize and interpret many sources. Use them for background, not as the main proof of what happened.
- Ignoring the author and purpose is wrong because a source can be accurate, biased, persuasive, or incomplete depending on who made it and why. Always check authority and purpose before using it.
- Using only one type of source is weak because a project needs both evidence and context. Primary sources show direct information, while secondary sources help explain meaning and importance.
Practice Questions
- 1 A student has 12 sources for a history project. Seven are diary entries, photographs, letters, or government records, and five are textbook chapters, encyclopedia pages, or biographies. How many primary sources and how many secondary sources does the student have?
- 2 You are required to use at least 10 sources, with at least 40 percent primary sources. What is the minimum number of primary sources you need, and how many secondary sources could you use?
- 3 A student finds a newspaper article written the day after a major protest and a history book chapter written 30 years later about the same protest. Explain which source is more likely to be primary, which is more likely to be secondary, and why both could be useful.