Locating Useful Resources (Sl. )

Locating Useful Resources (Sl. )
When you chose a topic and determined your research questions, you conducted preliminary research to stimulate your thinking. Your proposal included some general ideas for how to go about your research—for instance, interviewing an expert in the field or analyzing the content of popular magazines. You may even have identified a few potential sources. Now it is time to conduct a more focused, systematic search for informative primary and secondary sources.
Using Primary and Secondary Sources (Sl)
Writers classify research resources in two categories: primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are direct, firsthand sources of information or data. For example, if you were writing a paper about freedom of religion, the text of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be a primary source.
Other primary sources include the following:
Research articles
Literary texts
Historical documents such as diaries or letters
Autobiographies or other personal accounts