LET’S PLAY A GAME…
What just happened???
Sometimes, history can be like a giant
game of telephone– the “actual”
message (or what really happened)
can get all mixed up as it travels
through time.
The historical record is huge and limitless. For every single event that has
ever happened, there are a ton of different accounts of what happened.
Every person who witnessed the event or heard about the event will
have a slightly different version of what actually happened.
Also, events are happening all the time– this is why history is so interesting!
The first soccer ball, the most popular song on the radio during your
mom’s senior year of high school, and last football season are all a part
of “history.”
WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH ALL OF
THIS INFORMATION???
Luckily, there are different types of sources that we use for different purposes!
PRIMARY SOURCES
A primary source is something that was written or created by an observer
during the time under study. This means that the author/creator is a
witness and is not retelling.
 Ex: Ms. Hargrove won tickets to Super Bowl XLV and saw the Packers beat
the Stealers. She went home and wrote her best friend an email about the
game. This email is a primary source because Ms. Hargrove watched the
Super Bowl with her own two eyes and told her friends the facts while it
was still fresh in her mind.
 Primary sources can include:
 Original documents (Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews,
news film footage, autobiographies, official records, etc.)
 Creative works (Poetry, drama, novels, music, art)
 Relics/artifacts (Pottery, furniture, clothing, architecture)
What else? Any other examples?
SECONDARY SOURCES
A secondary source is a source that interprets, examines, or analyzes
primary sources.
 A secondary source is a great place to start your research! For example,
our textbook or an encyclopedia is a great resource for gaining a general
understanding of an event or historical figure!
Secondary sources can include:
 Scholarly publications (Academic journals, textbooks, encyclopedias)
 Commentaries
 Re-enactments
Can you think of any more examples?
I’M SICK OF READING… CAN’T WE JUST WATCH
A MOVIE?
Sources don’t have to just be books!
• Books are considered print resources– you read print resources in order to gain
information. Some examples might include:
• Books
• Scholarly publications
• Articles
•
A visual resource helps you with your research, and all you have to do is look at it!
Some examples might include:
• Artwork
• Photographs
• Architecture
•
An oral resource is generally another person! You can learn a lot by listening to
someone speak or interviewing someone! For a very long time, most history was oral–
people passed down stories about historical events generation to generation before
print resources were widely available! Some examples might include:
• Interviews
• Speeches
Bias is “an inclination
of temperament or
outlook; especially:
a personal and
sometimes
unreasoned
judgment:
prejudice.”
(Merriam-Webster)
BE CAREFUL!
Sometimes we find sources that aren’t completely
neutral– the writer might be “playing favorites” or
trying to make things appear differently from the way
that they happened.
Bias isn’t necessarily negative; it’s just a bit skewed. You
might have a positive bias:
 For example, if I told you that the Texans/Jets game last week was
“the worst football game ever” because the Jets lost to the Texans,
I’m feeding you biased information. Although the Jets did lose, you
still learned that the Texans won the game (which is a fact.)
Part of doing research involves
making sure that your sources
are valid, and you’ll need to do
some detective work to make
sure that you’re using good
information. This means using
several different types of
sources and making sure that
they all are essentially saying
the same thing.
THINK ABOUT IT THIS WAY…
WHEN YOU’RE DECIDING WHAT MOVIE TO GO SEE, WHO DO YOU
ASK FOR ADVICE? IS IT BETTER TO ASK SOMEONE WHO HAS
ACTUALLY SEEN THE MOVIE, OR SOMEONE WHO KNOWS
SOMEONE WHO’S SEEN THE MOVIE?
On one hand, if the
person you’re
talking to has seen
the movie, s/he can
give you his opinions
based on his/her
actual, real-life
experience.
On the other hand, someone
can still report facts and
other peoples’ opinions
about the movie. I haven’t
seen “Kung Fu Panda 2,”
but I have read the
reviews and have heard
multiple people say that
they liked the movie. You
might want to consider
this information too.
PARLEZ-VOUS MA LANGUE?
Sometimes, the source that we want to use wasn’t
originally written in English. We have to use the same
process to make sure that we are understanding the
author’s ideas by reading multiple translations, or
doing research on which translation is best. This way,
we can make sure that what we are reading is as
close as possible to what the author meant in his/her
native tongue.
WHACHA DOIN?
We also need to think about why we’re doing research.
•
If we want a general description or broad overview of an event, it is
probably best to use a secondary source, like an encyclopedia or
scholarly articles from an academic journal.
•
Sometimes, we have to do original research.
 In college, Ms. Hargrove had to write a thesis, which is an extremely
long paper that requires “original research”– Ms. Hargrove couldn’t rely
only on secondary sources. She had to use a ton of primary source
documents in order to create a secondary source document of her own as
accurately as possible! After reading and conducting interviews,
interpreting legislation, interpreting historical data and much more, Ms.
Hargrove was able to synthesize all of her research into one product!
TO INFINITY… AND BEYOND!
Even though we discussed a lot of different types of sources today,
we definitely haven’t covered every type of source in our lists of
examples– there are a lot of sources we haven’t discussed, or
that might actually surprise you!
 If someone wanted to research Ms. Hargrove’s life, her birth certificate
would be a good primary source document.
Can you think of any other surprising examples?