primary sources

Examples of primary sources in the following topics:

• The Imperfect Historical Record

  • In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called original source or evidence) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or other source of information that was created at the time under study.
  • Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources.
  • In some cases, a secondary source may also be a primary source, depending on how it is used.
  • History as an academic discipline is based on primary sources, as evaluated by the community of scholars for whom primary sources are absolutely fundamental to reconstructing the past.
  • Historians continue to debate what aspects and practices of investigating primary sources should be considered, and what constitutes a primary source when developing the most effective historical method.

• Scholarly Sources

  • Academic research papers are typically based on scholarly sources and primary sources.
  • A primary source is an original document.
  • Primary sources can come in many different forms.
  • Secondary sources, by contrast, are books and articles that analyze primary sources.
  • Most essays will use a combination of primary and secondary sources.

• Variations in Accuracy

  • How do you know if your sources are "good?
  • You should also understand that scholarly research comes in primary and secondary sources.
  • A primary source is an original document containing content and data created or collected by the author.
  • Primary sources can include interviews you conduct to gain information and data, collections of letters, lab reports, autobiographical, and literary works.
  • Secondary sources are written about primary sources and include documents such as reviews, critiques, biographies, and other scholarly books or journal articles.

• Protists as Primary Producers, Food Sources, and Symbionts

  • Protists function as sources of food for organisms on land and sea.
  • Protists are essential sources of nutrition for many other organisms.
  • As primary producers, protists feed a large proportion of the world's aquatic species.
  • (On land, terrestrial plants serve as primary producers. ) In fact, approximately one-quarter of the world's photosynthesis is conducted by protists, particularly dinoflagellates, diatoms, and multicellular algae.
  • Protists do not only create food sources for sea-dwelling organisms.

• The Importance of Reliability

  • This will ensure that your source is both credible and relevant, and that the source will enhance your paper rather than undermine it.
  • The guidelines for assessing the usability of print sources and digital sources (i.e., sources accessed through the Internet) are similar.
  • One point to keep in mind for both digital and print sources is age: How old is the source?
  • Instead, it will be helpful to combine the older, primary sources with more recent, secondary scholarship.
  • Depending on your topic, you may want to avoid dot-com websites because their primary purpose tends to be commerce, which can significantly affect the content that they publish.

• Use of Existing Sources

  • Studying existing sources collected by other researchers is an essential part of research in the social sciences.
  • But even gathering primary historical documents for each of the three countries would have been a daunting task.
  • Common sources differ from primary data.
  • Primary data, by contrast, are collected by the investigator conducting the research.
  • The primary reason is that secondary data analysis saves time that would otherwise be spent collecting data.

• Primary Groups

  • Families and close friends are examples of primary groups.
  • Primary groups play an important role in the development of personal identity.
  • Cooley argued that the impact of the primary group is so great that individuals cling to primary ideals in more complex associations and even create new primary groupings within formal organizations.
  • They also are often psychologically comforting to the individuals involved and provide a source of support and encouragement.
  • This family from the 1970s would be an example of a primary group.

• Abiotic Factors Influencing Plant Growth

  • Temperature and moisture are important influences on plant production (primary productivity) and the amount of organic matter available as food (net primary productivity).
  • It principally occurs through the process of photosynthesis, which uses light as its source of energy, but it also occurs through chemosynthesis, which uses the oxidation or reduction of chemical compounds as its source of energy.
  • Almost all life on earth is directly or indirectly reliant on primary production.
  • The organisms responsible for primary production, known as primary producers or autotrophs, form the base of the food chain.
  • The magnitude and distribution of global primary production varies between biomes.

• Productivity within Trophic Levels

  • For example, in the English Channel ecosystem, the primary producers account for a biomass of 4 g/m2 (grams per meter squared), while the primary consumers exhibit a biomass of 21 g/m2.
  • Photoautotrophy is the process by which an organism (such as a green plant) synthesizes its own food from inorganic material using light as a source of energy; chemoautotrophy, on the other hand, is the process by which simple organisms (such as bacteria or archaea) derive energy from chemical processes rather than photosynthesis.
  • The rate at which photosynthetic primary producers incorporate energy from the sun is called gross primary productivity.
  • Net primary productivity is the energy that remains in the primary producers after accounting for the organisms' respiration and heat loss.
  • Explain the concept of primary production and distinguish between gross primary production and net primary production

• Primary and Secondary Metabolites

  • Bacterial metabolism can be classified into three major categories: the kind of energy used for growth, the carbon source, and the electron donors used for growth.
  • Metabolites can be categorized into both primary and secondary metabolites.
  • Primary metabolites are involved in growth, development, and reproduction of the organism.
  • Examples of primary metabolites include alcohols such as ethanol, lactic acid, and certain amino acids.
  • Another example of a primary metabolite commonly used in industrial microbiology includes citric acid.