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Analyzing Primary Sources: What is a Primary Source? 1533 Views
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Description:
In this video, learn exactly what a primary source is and isn't.
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak analyzing primary sources What is a
- 00:06
primary source Welcome to analyzing primary sources Eyelash mup we
- 00:12
bet you've been waiting all summer for this to come
- 00:14
out Okay so here we go You're doing research are
- 00:17
looking all over the internet trying to produce a convincing
Full Transcript
- 00:20
paper or video of whatever homework it is You're trying
- 00:24
to figure out what is the best way to do
- 00:27
that Well one arrow in your quiver is citing primary
- 00:31
sources and we're here to talk with deb from shmoop
- 00:34
about how you do that What is a primary source
- 00:40
We'll primary source is original material from the time period
- 00:46
understudy So you are studying the renaissance then a primary
- 00:52
source is something from the renaissance Exactly It can also
- 00:58
be something written or produced by someone who has firsthand
- 01:02
knowledge of that time period of that event So you
- 01:06
might be talking about say a diary from the civil
- 01:09
war that the american civil war that is ah primary
- 01:12
source also a primary source would be a diary written
- 01:16
by someone after the war was over but who had
- 01:19
experienced the war firsthand So both of those counters primary
- 01:23
sources if you're then reading something from the nineteen hundreds
- 01:28
about the civil war and the person who wrote it
- 01:31
or you know produced it in whatever way didn't live
- 01:33
through the civil war doesn't have firsthand knowledge You're no
- 01:35
longer talking about a primary source So just because a
- 01:38
source is old and from the past it doesn't mean
- 01:41
that it's a primary source so primary you know means
- 01:44
first yes are first in line and when we think
- 01:47
primary we should think about the actual thing that was
- 01:52
produced or that we're referring to not what someone commented
- 01:58
on something or the first exactly exactly its original material
- 02:02
from the time period not someone interpreting it or commenting
- 02:05
and commenting on it got it And so for normal
- 02:08
people using the internet and so like where do they
- 02:11
go to find primary sources Like i guess wikipedia almost
- 02:15
by definition is not a primary source unless you're writing
- 02:18
a paper on wikipedia correct Um what could be articles
- 02:21
or not Although wicky source has a lot of primary
- 02:24
source isn't it You want to be careful there it's
- 02:26
always best to go back to as close to the
- 02:28
original sources get if you have all rare books library
- 02:33
in your face man Awesome You can actually find the
- 02:35
book from the seventeenth century more likely that you're going
- 02:38
to find out and internet archive there tons of archives
- 02:42
If you're talking about the victorian period there's victorian web
- 02:45
dot or calm i don't know what but basically depending
- 02:48
on you know what time period you're talking about There's
- 02:50
gonna be different archives online where they've totally digitized old
- 02:55
stuff So they either taken ah picture of a sculpture
- 02:59
that was made in the sixteenth century or they've scanned
- 03:03
in a book that was written in the nineteenth century
- 03:06
Whatever the cases they've turned it into something very cool
- 03:12
What is a primary source What is not a primary
- 03:16
source Where can you find a primary source Is wikipedia 00:03:21.213 --> [endTime] a trustworthy source
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