Finding Primary Sources

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Finding Primary Sources

Now that you’ve found several secondary sources for your paper, it’s time to move on to primary sources. Today you'll find one of those primary sources.

For your research project, you are required to reference at least two primary sources. Remember that a primary source is one that has not been filtered by a later writer. In this case, it should be something written by the person you’re studying. Here are a few types of text you might find for your research:

Letters
Journals
Speeches
Songs (if lyrics were written by your source)

When searching for primary sources, it can be helpful to add any of the above words to your web search. So, instead of searching “Emily Dickinson,” I might search “letters Emily Dickinson” and find far more primary sources.

Watch the tutorial linked below to learn about Google Advanced to research primary topics.

Here are some great resources for academic research for primary sources -

Google Scholar

U.S. History Primary Sources Online

World History Primary Sources Online

Associated Press Archive

National Archives

Library Of Congress

If you are still struggling to find sources, go back to wikipedia and the britannica - Don't Stop There! - but look way down at the bottom of the reference page for your topic, there should be sources linked there that might be rife with potential.

Find your two primary sources and take notes on them using outline notes, sentence notes, a web, or Cornell notes (from Unit 5).

Remember these should be sources that give you significant insight into who your person was and why they were so important.

Submit TWO (2) separate notes on two different primary sources into the dropbox.