Craft of Writing: Primary Sources

Dear Reader,

If you are writing something that requires you to do research, it can be challenging to sort through the material you find. It can be especially hard to dig down through the layers of source material until you have reached a primary source document. Primary sources are your best tool for accurate facts. In some cases, the primary source has been lost (i.e. the bible) and in other cases it is so obscured that you can't access it (i.e. posts on social media). If you can track down the primary source of material you have found quoted, you can put the quote into proper context.

This can be a frustrating pursuit in this day of digital everything. Especially if you have to go off-line to search material and you're not sure of your access to it. I highly recommend getting to know your local library staff because they can do a world of good. They can help you locate books within their library system and via interlibrary loan that are useful to your research. They can also assist you in tracking down books related to the ones you sign out.

If you are fortunate enough to live near a college or university, the library staff there can help you locate academic papers on the subject of your research. Often times, the academic papers serve as primary sources for non-academic work in a given topic. News material can share things that are happening in the field but it is a fickle source. Given the abundance of digital sources and how quickly they change, it can be difficult to find an article that you initially read. Screen captures are your friend in this case.

It is important to remember, however, news material can be a secondary or tertiary hand source. Check the articles you read carefully to determine if they are quoting another source. Always hold in doubt sources like chatbot search results and many websites that fail to give attribution to the primary source. Chatbots and AI search results have been found to outright make up material that is inaccurate. As tempting of a short cut these seem, they can literally make you hours more work in the long run.