Primary sources contain first-hand information, meaning that you are reading the author’s own account on a specific topic or event that they participated in or lived through. Primary sources are used to gain a first-hand account of an actual event.
Primary sources include:
artifacts
diaries
documents
letters
newspaper articles from the time
speeches
oral history interviews
photographs,
anything else that provides contemporary accounts about a person or event.
(National History Day)
University of Guelph Library. "What are Primary Sources?" YouTube, 8 Feb. 2019, youtu.be/hQpMjYaNNkQ. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.
Primary sources can be found online, in books, in databases, in archives, and in libraries. If you find a quote of a primary source in a secondary source, you should do your best to find, read, and cite the full primary source.
Use the following format to cite a primary source found online:
Author of original document by Last name, First name, “Title of document,” Date of document, Title of Web Site where document is found, Author, Editor, or Producer of site, accessed date, URL.
To add to Noodle Tools:
1. New Source / Website / Webpage / Quick Cite: Copy and Paste a Citation.
2. Manually enter the information according to the format above. Click Save.