secondary source

Meaning

A secondary source is a document or text that discusses, analyzes, summarizes, or interprets information originally presented elsewhere. Examples include textbooks, biographical books, review articles, and documentaries. It is used in academic research to provide context, critique, and synthesis of original data or historical events.

Examples

• A biography written fifty years after a president's death is a secondary source.

  A biography written fifty years after a president's death is a secondary source.

• We used a secondary source to understand the historical context of the poem.

  We used a secondary source to understand the historical context of the poem.

• While primary sources give raw data, a secondary source offers expert analysis.

  While primary sources give raw data, a secondary source offers expert analysis.

• The literature review in your dissertation should synthesize more than one secondary source.

  The literature review in your dissertation should synthesize more than one secondary source.

• The textbook serves as a reliable secondary source for introductory chemistry students.

  The textbook serves as a reliable secondary source for introductory chemistry students.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ She quoted the original treaty, which is a secondary source.

  ✓ She quoted the original treaty, which is a primary source.

  An original treaty is a firsthand legal document from the event itself, making it a primary source, not a secondary source.

• ✗ I need to find a secondary source, like a diary from the medieval era.

  ✓ I need to find a secondary source, like a modern historian's book about the medieval era.

  A medieval diary is a firsthand account (primary source). A modern analysis of that diary is a secondary source.

Related Expressions

Practice

• A journal article analyzing the results of someone else's experiment is a ___.

  💡 An interpretive or analytical text.

  Show answer

  secondary source

• While the letter was a primary source, the biography of the author was a ___.

  💡 A text that analyzes or summarizes original work.

  Show answer

  secondary source