After an introduction by the instructor, students apply definitions of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources to categorize sources on a handout. Then the instructor discusses the answers with them.
Other activity in this series: Activity 2B, Who’s the Intended Audience?
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- Distinguish between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.
Relevant Threshold Concepts
- Authority is constructed and contextual.
- Information creation as a process.
Suggestions for Use
- This activity should help students, including beginning graduate students,
who will be planning which kinds of sources they should consider for their research projects. - Consider using this activity back-to-back with Activity 2B, Who’s the Intended Audience?, which teaches students to distinguish between popular, professional, or scholarly sources in a very similar way. Then using Activities 3B, Meeting Needs with Sources I and Activity 3C, Meeting Needs with SourcesII, will help students understand which categories of sources can meet their information needs for their research projects.
- Students can complete Handout 2A-1 electronically or in print.
- Consider customizing Handout 2A-1 so students practice with an event and sources more related to your discipline. You could simply replace the event (bridge collapse) and the sources with something more related to your discipline.
Pre-Class Preparation
- Review the handout and answer key for this activity.
- Review In-Class Procedure below.
- Read Choosing and Using Sources, Chapter 2, Types of Sources.
- If you decided you want your students to practice with sources more related to your discipline, customize Handout 2A-1. Simply replace the event (bridge collapse) and the sources with something more related to your discipline. Adjust Answer Key 2A-1 at the same time.
- Decide whether you want students to complete Handout 2A-1 on paper or electronically.
- If you decided on an electronic handout, put Handout 2A-1 in your learning management system.
- If you decided on paper copies, print Handout 2A-1 (1 copy per student and 1 for yourself) and Answer Key 2A-1 (1 copy for yourself).
- Consider assigning students to read Chapter 2, Types of Sources, before class.
- Prepare to introduce the session, using your own remarks or In-Class Procedure, if it is helpful.
- Using Answer Sheet 2A-1, plan your discussion of the answers on the handout.
- Download and perhaps print In-Class Procedure and Answer Key 2A-1 so you can take them with you to class.
In-Class Procedure
- If you’re having students use printed copies of Handout 2A-1, pass them out or set them where students can pick them up as they come in.
- If you’re having students use an electronic Handout 2A-1, tell them how to find and open it.
- Introduce the session by pointing out to students that sources for research projects are not all the same. They vary in several ways, including in their format—whether they are in print or online, for instance. They also differ in how they can be used for the project—how they can be made to function to help the project. For instance, a source might be a great overview to a topic that a student can learn from but it may not be helpful at all about answering his/her research question.
- Tell them that sources also differ in their relationship to an event that they describe or otherwise deal with, and it’s that relationship between event and source that students will be looking at today.
- Tell them that this activity will help them tell different kinds of sources apart and know what label to put on them, based on the source’s relationship with an event.
- Ask students to complete Handout 2A-1 by applying the definitions at the top to answer the questions that start in the middle. Give them a deadline of 5 minutes.
- After about 5 minutes, go over the answers with students. Ask for and answer questions they may have.
Relevant Choosing & Using Sources Chapters:
Chapter 2, Types of Sources.
Credit: Daniel Dotson of Ohio State University Libraries contributed to this activity.
