In your history project, you were asked to use primary and secondary sources. When you researched what others had written about your place, person or event you were looking at secondary sources. When you completed your observation you were doing your own primary research. Now in your second project, you will be asked to conduct more primary research (cognitive mapping observations and breaking experiments), and eventually you will conduct secondary research to add to your project. In this reflection, discuss your understanding of primary and secondary research. What experiences have you had with each? What do you like about each type of research? What are the difficulties you have faced with each type of research? You can talk about your current work or work in other classes or in high school.
My understanding of primary and secondary research is very direct. Primary sources are exact things like eye-witness statements, autobiographies, diary entries, etc. Secondary sources can be opinionated, like in the case of reviews, autobiographies, newspapers, and the media, and are not always reliable. It’s always been drilled into me that you should be using more primary sources than secondary sources, and that you should pick your secondary sources with care. It definitely helps that I prefer using primary sources to secondary sources.
The best thing about primary research is the fact that it is the most reliable source because it’s not an opinion-filled summary of a source. The best thing about secondary research is the fact that it can be opinionated; you can use sources that share the same sentiments that you do in order to best enhance your point. The most difficult thing about primary sources can be interpreting them correctly. Sometimes you think your research helps prove your point, when in reality it might not. The most difficult thing about working with secondary sources is that credibility factor because the fact remains that many secondary sources can be biased (like textbooks that are written differently in other parts of the world or, in our case, other states).
Over the course of my academic career I’ve had to do tons of research from learning about illegal immigration to the juvenile justice system to getting historical backgrounds on works of literature, just to name a few. I’ve had to scour through case files, videos, audio recordings, textbooks, book reviews, journal entries, academic journals, news articles, and so much more. I remember having a particularly hard time doing my final 10 page paper for English last semester because there just didn’t seem to be a lot written about my topic. With some guidance from my professor, I was able to get through it without losing my head, thankfully.
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