INDIGST 1AA3 Lecture 1: Instructions for Citation and Attribution 1
31 May 2017
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Document Summary
A very important aspect of academic writing is the citation of sources. Good university essays cite primary and secondary material and avoid tertiary material: a primary source is a source that provides direct, or nearly direct, evidence about the situation or phenomenon you are writing about. For modern history, primary sources include official reports, letters, eyewitness accounts, etc. For ancient history, they include classical authors, documents surviving in inscriptions and papyrus, and archaeological artefacts: your secondary sources are expert interpretations of that material, whether in the form of books, commentaries, or articles in scholarly journals. The coverage in such works is usually not comprehensive, and they typically do not offer and evaluate alternative interpretations. Often tertiary works are useful for confirming correct spellings, locations, or dates, and will often identify relevant primary sources and the best secondary literature. You should base your research on primary and secondary material.
