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Evaluation

How do you tell whether a source is primary or secondary?

In distinguishing a primary from a secondary source you should ask two questions:

• Do the documents or artifacts survive from the time the event you are studying took place?
• If the source is a written work, is the writer (individual or group) a witness to the event you are studying?

If the answer to the two questions above is "yes," then you have a primary source.

Next: Getting primary sources