English

Second Lecture
From Problems to Sources
A researcher usually searches through:
going to the library, using the internet,
asking supervisors and colleagues in
order to find a problem that catches
his/her interest.
Three kinds of sources and their
uses.
Sources are categorized into three kinds:
primary, secondary, and tertiary. Their
boundaries are fuzzy (not clear), but
knowing these categories can help you
plan your research.
 1- Primary sources:
Primary sources are “original” materials that
provide you with the “raw data” or
evidence you develop, test and ultimately
justify your hypothesis or claim.

Primary sources vary significantly by field.

For example, In history, Primary sources
are:
artifacts
objects letters diaries clothing
In .literature or philosophy, your
main primary source is usually the
text you are
analyzing.
In arts criticism, your primary
source is the work of art your
are interpreting.
 In social sciences, such as
sociology or political science,
census or survey data are
primary sources.

In natural sciences,
reports of the original search are
sometimes counted as primary
sources.
 Secondary
sources

Secondary sources are books, articles or

Reports that are based on primary
sources. The body of secondary sources
in a field is sometimes called that field’s
“literature”.
The best secondary sources are books from
reputable university presses and articles or
reports that have been “ peer-reviewed”,
meaning that they are vetted by experts in
the field before they were published.

Researchers read secondary sources to:

- Keep up with developments in their field.

- Stimulate their own thinking.
- Frame new research problems from the
conclusions of others.
- Borrow evidence to use in their arguments.
 Tertiary sources

- These are books and articles that

synthesize and report on secondary
sources for general readers, such as
textbooks, articles and encyclopedias
( including Wikipedia).

- You can use tertiary sources to get a feel

for a topic.
 Tertiary sources

If you are making a scholarly argument,

you should rely on secondary sources.
If you cite tertiary sources in a scholarly
argument, you will mark yourself as either a
novice or an outsider, and many readers
won’t take you- or your argument –
seriously.
 Tertiary sources

Why should not researchers rely on

tertiary sources?
-Researchers should not rely on tertiary
sources because:

- They are limited.

- They are intended for broad audiences ( not
scholarly audiences).
- They sometimes oversimplify the research on
which they are based.
- They are susceptible to becoming outdated.
 Tertiary sources

If you keep these limitations( of tertiary

sources) in mind, they can be valuable
sources: they can inform you about new
topics and they can lead you to valuable
secondary resources.
 Vocabulary:
-conventionally: traditionally
- categorized: classified
- boundaries: limits
- fuzzy: unclear
- original: authentic
- ultimately : finally
- Justify: give reasons for
- hypothesis: supposition
- significantly: remarkably
- artifacts: documents
- interpreting: explaining
- census: survey/overview
- scholarly: academic
- reputable: reliable/respected
- presses: publishing houses
- vetted: checked/examined
- keep up with: match
- stimulate: encourage
- standard: ideal
- challenge: disagree with
- do not have access to: can not reach
- risk: endanger
- synthesize: combine
- seriously: thoughtfully
- distinguished: well-known/famous
- scholars: specialists
- address: deal with
- susceptible: liable
- outdated: old-fashioned
- limitations: restrictions
- stimulate: encourage
- bibliographies: lists of works cited
- challenge: disagree with
- raw data : ‫بيانات خام‬
- risk: endanger
- encyclopedias: ‫موسوعات‬
- Wikipedia: a free online encyclopedia
- Write an essay - in your own
language- about the primary,
secondary and tertiary sources,
illustrating the main differences
among them .