A secondary source is one that was created after the event by someone who wasn't there. Examples include books, journals, magazines and websites. It isn't one that is secondary in importance!
You can review the research instruction from the Fall in this updated Understanding Secondary Sources page.
For your paper you may need to find scholarly sources. The slides below tell you the difference between a scholarly and non-scholarly source. If you're not sure, ask your teacher or a librarian.
The best place to look for journals and magazine articles for your research paper is through the UHS library databases (a database is an organized collection of pre-selected resources). Make sure you are looking at an article NOT a book review (though you can look for the book if it sounds worthwhile):
You are looking for sources that:
1. Are reliable and authoritative.
2. Add to your knowledge and help you answer your research question.
Make sure your source does both of these BEFORE you spend too much time with it!
If you find a source from one of our databases, it is likely to reliable. However, if you are looking at something you've Googled, make sure it's from a reputable author or group. If you're not sure, ask your teacher or a librarian.
To decide if the source is useful to you, read the first few paragraphs or the abstract for a journal or look at the table of contents and read the first few pages of the introduction for a book. This should give you an idea of whether it's going to give you useful information and whether it's going to be written in an accessible style.