MUS 1914W: Music in Nazi Germany

• Primary sources:
  • Direct or first-hand evidence about an event, object, person, work of music or art, etc.
  • Little to no mediation or interpretation between the document and its creator
  • Examples: autobiographies, letters, diaries, musical scores, works of art, speeches, recordings, photographs, articles in newspapers that describe events
     
• Secondary sources:
  • Interpret, comment on, analyze, or process the information from primary sources in some way
  • Examples: history text books, opinion or argument articles, analyses of musical compositions or literary texts
     
• Tertiary sources:
  • Provide general or background information for quick reference
  • Don't usually cite these in research papers.
  • These can lead you to secondary and primary sources by looking at bibliographies or further reading section.
  • Examples: encyclopedias, Wikipedia
     
• Facsimile:
  • An exact copy of an original artifact
  • Example: the newspaper articles we’ll find in databases today are facsimiles
     
• Peer-reviewed sources:
  • One or more experts on a subject have reviewed the article before publication and made sure it meets the standards of the field.
  • Some library databases allow you to limit searches to peer reviewed sources. Look for "peer review" or "scholarly" limits.  
     

TIP: Finding and consulting a mix of different types of sources will help you to form your own ideas about your topic, which will make it easier to start writing!