When conducting historical research you will want to use a variety of primary and secondary sources.
Secondary sources
- Written about the time period you are studying
- Include books, journal articles, reviews, websites
- Look for words such as "history," "analysis," "context"
- Narrow your results to scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources to find high-quality research-based articles
Primary Sources:
- Written or created during the time you are studying
- Include articles, newspaper articles, pictures, data, letters, etc.
- When searching, do not use words such as "history" or "article." Instead, use a general key term, such as "education," and narrow down the dates to find what was being written about that topic during your time period
- Try to use language from your time-period. Example: "vocational education"
- Do not narrow your results to scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources
For all works:
- Consider the slant or biases of the original author or historian writing about it
