secondary source
Secondhand scholarly material
A secondary source analyzes, interprets, or comments on primary sources rather than presenting original evidence directly.
A historian's book about World War II is a secondary source; a soldier's diary from the war is primary.
The professor required at least three secondary sources for the research paper.
The distinction matters in academic research, where primary sources carry more evidentiary weight.
Methodical study of parts
- commentaryExplanatory remarks on events
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- critiqueDetailed evaluative analysis
- synthesisCombining parts into whole
historiography · exegesis · review · textbook · monograph · encyclopedia · contextualization · paraphrase
List of cited works
- footnoteCitation at page bottom
- referenceDirecting attention elsewhere
- archiveStored historical records
- indexAlphabetical guide to contents
compilation · quotation · attribution · endnote · works cited · documentation · cross-reference · excerpt
analysis
Methodical study of parts
- commentaryExplanatory remarks on events
- interpretationAssigned meaning
- critiqueDetailed evaluative analysis
synthesis · historiography · exegesis · review · textbook · monograph · encyclopedia · contextualization · paraphrase · summary
bibliography
List of cited works
- footnoteCitation at page bottom
- referenceDirecting attention elsewhere
- archiveStored historical records
index · compilation · quotation · attribution · endnote · works cited · documentation · cross-reference · excerpt · abstract
- history termsempire, dynasty, colonialism, Renaissance, Enlightenment
- researchstudy, research papers, researching, archive, peer review
- historieschronicle, annals, historical record, historical account, historical narrative
- history educationhistorian, history textbooks, textbook, history teachers, teaching history
- backup powergenerator, battery backup, backup power, backup generator, APU
- citationscitation, citations, cite, cited, citation style
secondary sourceprimary source
Unmediated evidence from events
firsthand account · eyewitness account · eyewitness testimony · direct evidence · raw data
source, secondary, secondhand, ancillary, subsidiary, secondarily, secondary sources