Email: arosenquist@ccc.edu
This guide will help students compose their English 101/97 research assignments.
Investigate a career and write a report on it using personal experience and the Occupational Outlook Handbook. You can access this resource online at http://bls.gov/ooh.
Do not use any other online or print source without permission. To find information about a career on bls.gov, type your query into the search box like this:
1. For students who are transferring to complete a Bachelor's Degree: select two four-year colleges or universities (e.g. DePaul and UIC) that you would like to transfer to after attending HWC. Try searching DuckDuckGo or Google for universities and programs that interest you:
2. For students who are completing an Associate's Degree: choose two City Colleges or other Associate’s Degree programs (e.g. Nursing and Radiology). Search the CCC website for information about programs of interest:
3. For students who are completing a basic or advanced certificate, apprenticeship, or vocational training: Choose two schools or programs that offer the education you will need for your career. The CCC Academic Catalog has information about all of our programs. Search the catalog for programs that interest you:
4. For students who are only considering one college or university: Choose two majors or specializations within one major at that university (e.g. Music Business vs Music Performance at Columbia College).
A primary source is an original object or document from a specific time or event under study. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, interviews, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, survey data, observations, diaries, letters, photographs, videos, paintings, works of literature, ancient pieces of pottery unearthed in Iraq, government documents, statistics and more. In the natural and social sciences, primary sources are often empirical studies — research where an experiment was done or a direct observation was made.
A secondary source is anything that’s written about a primary source, such as an essay about a novel, a newspaper article about AIDS research, a history textbook, a movie review, or subsequent thoughts on The Gettysburg Address.
Tertiary sources use primary and secondary courses to construct a narrative and/or theory. Examples of tertiary sources are encyclopedias and textbooks.
Can a single source ever be both?
Not really, but it can be confusing. For instance, if you are writing a paper about global warming, a newspaper article that discusses new research on the topic issue is a secondary source. But if you are writing a paper about the media’s coverage of global warming, then the newspaper article is a primary source. What you are studying changes your relationship to the material. To further muddy the water, a secondary source may very well INCLUDE primary source materials in the form of pictures, statistics, or quotes, and that MIGHT work for your teacher, but it might not. Likewise, to ensure accuracy, it is a good practice to track down the primary source if you can, just to verify it.
Examples
This chart, created by librarians at the Indiana University Bloomington, illustrates kinds of primary and secondary sources by discipline:
| Discipline | Primary Source | Secondary Source |
| Archeology | farming tools | treatise on innovative analysis of Neolithic artifacts |
| Art | sketch book | conference proceedings on French Impressionists |
| History | Emancipation Proclamation (1863) | book on the anti-slavery struggle |
| Journalism | interview | biography of publisher Randolph Hearst |
| Law | legislative hearing | law review article on anti-terrorism legislation |
| Literature | novel | literary criticism on Desolation Angels |
| Music | score of an opera | biography of the composer Mozart |
| Political Science | public opinion poll | newspaper article on campaign finance reform |
| Rhetoric | speech | editorial comment on Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech |
| Sociology | voter registry | Ph.D. dissertation on Hispanic voting patterns |
The librarians at Princeton offer a good explanation of primary resources.
Depending on the nature of your assignment, you may find primary sources in the book catalog, in the databases, and on the internet.
In the Book Catalog
Books written during the time you are studying are primary sources. Here is a search for the Civil Rights Movement limited to books that were published between 1960 and 1969.
In the Databases- Historical Articles
The databases contain two different types of primary sources. The first type is historical articles. You can specify a date range of publication when you search to find articles written during whatever time period you are writing about,
In the Databases- Original Research Articles
The databases also contain academic and peer-reviewed articles that may contain original research. To find these, search in the databases for combinations of keywords that describe your topic. Then filter your articles (left-hand side of the screen) to peer reviewed and academic journal articles.
Many of those articles will be primary sources, but not all of them. To make sure, skim the abstract, methods/methodology, and results sections of the articles. Look for statements of process showing that the author actually did the work. What kind of original research is described? Surveying, sampling, experimentation? Does the author describe a first-hand experience? (i.e.: First my team did this, then we did this, and then something happened!)
In the Databases--Documentaries or Interviews
The databases also contain video archives that may contain speeches, interviews, or documentaries about your topic or a person of interest. Look at our video offerings here.
On the Internet
You may be able to find digitized versions of historical images and archived newspapers online. It is a good idea to verify these as much as possible before including them in your paper. Likewise, you can find statistics and government documents, which also qualify as primary sources. Finally, YouTube or other sites featuring videos may have interviews or speeches.
MLA 9th edition citations contain up to nine elements in the following order:
To learn more, check out the HWC MLA9 Libguide.
