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How to Identify Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Primary

  • Cases
  • Correspondence
  • Description and travel
  • Diaries
  • Fiction
  • Interview
  • Personal narrative
  • Pictorial works
  • Poetry
  • Short stories
  • Sources

Secondary

  • Criticism and interpretation
  • History
  • History and criticism
  • Government policy
  • Law and legislation
  • Moral and ethical aspects
  • Political aspects
  • Politics and government
  • Psychological aspects
  • Public opinion
  • Religion
  • Religious aspects
  • Social policy
  • Study and teaching

Tertiary

  • Abstracts
  • Bibliography
  • Chronology
  • Classification
  • Dictionaries
  • Directories
  • Encyclopedias
  • Guidebooks
  • Handbooks, manuals, etc.
  • Identification
  • Indexes
  • Registers
  • Statistics
  • Index