LET'S FIND OUT SOCIAL STUDIES SKILLS WHAT ARE PRIMARY SOURCES SUSANNA KELLER Britannica Educational Publishing IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
What are Primary sourCes A primary source is a work that gives original information It comes from a time being studied or from a person who was involved in the events being studied Some primary sources supply facts about a subject Other primary sources express the views of people who experienced events A secondary source does not give original information Newspaper articles can be used as primary sources if they show what was happening in the world at a certain time 4
It interprets or summarizes information from primary sources Textbooks biographies encyclopedias and dictionaries are normally secondary sources A book about the American Revolution that was written in the 2000s is a secondary source A journal that a soldier kept during the American Revolution is a primary source Compare and Contrast 5 Art like this wall painting in an Egyptian tomb is a primary source for studying ancient Egypt Sometimes the way a source is used determines if it counts as primary or secondary An article from the 1950s about Pocahontas isn’t a primary source about her because she lived in the early 1600s But it could be a primary source about how people in the 1950s viewed Native Americans How are primary and secondary sources alike How are they different
