Research
Navigation
ONLINE DATABASES & RESOURCES
General Research
INFORMATION LITERACY & STAFF RESOURCES
MLA
MLA 8th Edition Research Guide
- Save to your Google Drive; used primarily in English classes
How to create your Works Cited Page
Commonly Used Citations
- Books
One Author, Multiple Authors, Dictionaries/Encyclopedias, Anthologies/Collections, etc.
- Electronic Resources
Web Sites, Databases, Online Journals/Magazines, E-mails, Images, Tweets, YouTube, etc.
- Periodicals
Magazines, Newspapers, Articles from Scholarly Journals (citations are based on PRINT).
- Other Sources
Interview, Digital Recording, Music, TV, Movie, Speech, etc
From Purdue OWL
APA
APA 6th Edition Research Guide
- Save to your Google Drive; used in Psychology and other Science courses
How to Create a Reference Page
Commonly Used Sources
- Books
One Author, Multiple Authors, Dictionaries/Encyclopedias, Anthologies/Collections, etc.
- Electronic Resources
Web Sites, Databases, Online Journals/Magazines, E-mails, Images, Tweets, YouTube, etc.
- Periodicals
Magazines, Newspapers, Articles from Scholarly Journals (citations are based on PRINT).
- Other Sources
Interview, Digital Recording, Music, TV, Movie, Speech, etc.
From Purdue OWL
Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources
Primary sources are original artifacts or documents. They offer firsthand accounts from the given author or individuals directly involved in an event.
-
Diaries and literary memoirs
-
Letters/ Correspondence
-
Visual Artistic works (photographs, paintings, sculptures, cartoons, etc.)
-
Written Artistic works (poems, songs, music, etc. )
-
News segments/transcripts
-
Speeches
-
Interviews
-
Editorials
-
Legal documents and Statistics (Government records)
Secondary sources are documents written after an event has occurred, providing secondhand accounts of that event, person, or topic. Unlike primary sources, which provide first-hand accounts, secondary sources offer different perspectives, analysis, and conclusions of those accounts.
- Journal, news, and magazine articles
- News reports
- Encyclopedias
- Textbooks
- Books
Tertiary Sources provide overviews of topics gathered from other primary and secondary resources. Another clue is that secondary sources are almost always written by experts, but tertiary sources may be written by staff writers who have an interest in the topic but are not scholars on the subject. Many tertiary sources could be considered secondary sources.
- Dictionaries
- Encyclopedia
- Almanac
- Bibliographies
- Chronologies
- Directories
- Fact books
- Guidebooks
- Manuals
- Textbooks
From University Library of UIUC