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Primary Text Research in the Humanities

Starting Out

What are primary texts?

Primary texts are the uninterpreted, textual evidence used by humanities researchers to support their arguments and opinions about their research topic. Primary texts are the written evidence left behind by participants or observers, so they offer an inside view of a particular event, events, or person.

Like detectives, humanities researchers carefully study the evidence offered by primary texts to find support for their interpretation of an historical event or literary work. They study primary texts in order to draw conclusions about their research topic, and then they compare these conclusions with what others have said about the topic or the research material.

The nature of the research project will determine what can serve as a primary text. Literary critics will use literary works as primary texts, in order to find passages that will support their arguments about the meaning of literary works and their place in literary history. Historians will use documents like diaries, newspaper articles, letters, and personal narratives as primary texts, in order to create a fresh interpretation of an historical event.

Primary texts can include:

  • Diaries
  • Speeches
  • Letters
  • Literary works
  • Articles or essays (historical)
  • Manuscript facsimiles (or copies)
  • Autobiographies
  • Transcribed interviews
  • Brochures, pamphlets, postcards, programs, advertisements
  • Government documents
  • Official records (birth, marriage, death)

(Excerpts or translations can count as primary texts.)

What are secondary sources?

Secondary sources are the analysis and interpretation of primary text material. Humanities researchers use the evidence gathered from primary texts to create a secondary source. Secondary sources compete with or support the arguments of other researchers who have written on the topic.

A secondary source can become a primary text. A study of Shakespeare's tragedies written in the nineteenth century, which can be considered a secondary source for someone studying the plays themselves, might become a primary text for someone looking at the history of criticism about the tragedies.

Humanities research, then, usually involves two components: 1) finding primary text material that will serve as evidence for the researcher's argument and 2) reading secondary sources to see what other researchers have said about the topic.

Where can I find primary texts?

This website is designed to help you locate primary texts in the Brandeis University Libraries. The pages listed under Primary Text Research Practices each provide strategies for finding primary text material. Different formats and collections require different research methods. A comprehensive search for primary text material in your research area requires you to try to find materials in each of the formats and collections listed.

What to expect while searching for primary texts.

  • Researching primary texts will take a lot of time. Finding the primary texts that fit your research project takes a lot of time and patience. Often, you will have to scan through large collections to find the text or texts that will give you the information you need. Plan to spend more time than you think researching primary texts.
  • Finding primary texts is often a multi-step process. You will probably have to go through several steps before locating the primary text you need. Sometimes, you will have to locate a large collection that will likely contain primary texts for your research topic, and then use different tools to search within that collection for the ones that specifically deal with your topic.
  • Expect to find primary texts in multiple formats. You will find primary texts in microform, in book form, and sometimes even in electronic form. While electronic resources with their ease of use are an attractive "first choice" for researching primary texts, you are more likely to have success finding what you need by searching in LOUIS, our library catalog, for books or microform collections. You should look for primary texts in all formats, so that you locate the one primary text that solidifies your argument.

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Created by
Anthony T. Vaver
Humanities Librarian

This page was last modified on: Mar 30, 2007