Primary and Secondary Sources on the Same Topic

Question 1

Text 1: Ana's diary, written the night of the mill fire she escaped. Text 2: a 2019 article about the fire that quotes Ana's diary. Why is Text 1 the primary source?

Accepted Answer

Ana wrote it herself as someone who lived through the fire.

Answer

It is older than the article, and older sources are primary.

Answer

It is a diary, and diaries are less formal than articles.

Answer

It was never published, and unpublished writing is primary.

Question 2

Text 1: a farmer's 1889 letter describing water rising over his fields. Text 2: a textbook chapter on the 1889 flood that quotes that letter. Why is Text 2 the secondary source?

Accepted Answer

It was written later by someone who did not witness the flood.

Answer

It is longer and more formal than the farmer's short letter.

Answer

It is more recent, and the newer source is always secondary.

Answer

It sits in a book, and books are secondary while letters are not.

Question 3

Text 1: a reporter's notebook filled in while she stood at the bridge opening. Text 2: a blog post written for the bridge's 50th anniversary. Which is the primary source, and why?

Accepted Answer

Text 1, because she recorded the event as she watched it happen.

Answer

Text 2, because it was written for the anniversary of that event.

Answer

Text 1, because notebooks are handwritten and blog posts are typed.

Answer

Text 2, because it had fifty years to gather all of the facts.

Question 4

Text 1: a captain's logbook entry written during the storm. Text 2: a 2004 magazine feature on that storm that quotes the log. What does the feature draw from the logbook?

Accepted Answer

The captain's notes on the wind and waves that night.

Answer

The captain's memories of the storm, told to a reporter years later.

Answer

The scientific account of how such storms form far offshore.

Answer

The list of later wrecks the magazine compares with the storm.

Question 5

Text 1: the official minutes taken at the June school board meeting. Text 2: a news roundup written a week later from those minutes. Why is Text 1 primary?

Accepted Answer

Someone at the meeting recorded it while it was happening.

Answer

It is shorter than the roundup and states only decisions.

Answer

The board produced it, and official writing is always primary.

Answer

It came first, and whichever source is earlier is primary.

Question 6

Text 1: the transcript of a speech a striking worker gave outside the plant in 1936. Text 2: a historian's 1998 chapter analyzing that strike. Where does their emphasis differ?

Accepted Answer

Text 1 urges fellow workers to act; Text 2 explains why the strike mattered.

Answer

Text 1 lists wage data; Text 2 describes the mood on the picket line.

Answer

Text 1 compares several strikes; Text 2 follows one worker's afternoon.

Answer

Text 1 covers the whole decade; Text 2 covers a single morning.

Question 7

Text 1: a photograph a canal worker took of his crew in 1912. Text 2: a 2015 documentary script describing that photograph. Which is the secondary source, and why?

Accepted Answer

Text 2, because it comments on a record someone else made.

Answer

Text 1, because a photograph is an image and not an account.

Answer

Text 2, because it is newer, and newer sources are secondary.

Answer

Text 1, because the worker was not a trained photographer.

Question 8

Text 1: a transcript of a survivor interviewed the day after the earthquake. Text 2: an encyclopedia entry on that earthquake. What can Text 2 offer that Text 1 cannot?

Accepted Answer

A summary of damage across the region, gathered afterward.

Answer

The survivor's memory of the ground shaking under her feet.

Answer

The exact words the survivor used about her ruined home.

Answer

A firsthand account of what happened during the shaking.

Question 9

Text 1: the tally sheet a poll worker filled in on election night. Text 2: a newspaper analysis of the result printed a month later. Why is Text 2 a secondary source?

Accepted Answer

It interprets results that other people recorded that night.

Answer

It reached its readers a month later than the tally sheet.

Answer

It was printed rather than written out by hand in pencil.

Answer

It carries opinions, and an opinion cannot be primary.

Question 10

Text 1: a written order a general sent his officers during the 1863 campaign. Text 2: a 1990 biography of the general that quotes the order. What did Text 2 draw from Text 1?

Accepted Answer

The instructions the general gave his officers that day.

Answer

The general's own explanation, written years later, of why he gave the order.

Answer

The way later writers judged the campaign's outcome.

Answer

The casualty totals historians counted after the campaign ended.

Question 11

Rosa helped fight the 1958 warehouse fire and wrote a memoir about it in 1999. What kind of source is her memoir?

Accepted Answer

Primary, because Rosa describes an event she took part in.

Answer

Secondary, because forty-one years passed before she wrote it.

Answer

Secondary, because a memoir is published for a wide audience.

Answer

Primary, because it was the first book written about the fire.

Question 12

Text 1: the 1907 arrival record listing a family's names and their ship. Text 2: a museum booklet telling that family's story from the record. What is Text 2's relationship to Text 1?

Accepted Answer

It retells and explains information the record already held.

Answer

It corrects the spelling errors the record's clerk made.

Answer

It stands in as the family's own firsthand account.

Answer

It was written by the same clerk at a later date.

Question 13

Text 1: a nurse's daybook noting each patient she treated in 1918. Text 2: a 2011 health report counting cases from daybooks like hers. How do the two differ in emphasis?

Accepted Answer

Text 1 records one nurse's daily work; Text 2 measures a broad pattern.

Answer

Text 1 measures a broad pattern; Text 2 records one nurse's daily work.

Answer

Text 1 argues for larger hospitals; Text 2 describes single patients.

Answer

Text 1 explains why the illness spread; Text 2 tells one patient's story.

Question 14

Text 1: a telephone company's 1920 price list. Text 2: a 2016 article on early phone costs built from lists like it. Why can Text 1 be called primary?

Accepted Answer

The company produced it while it was charging those prices.

Answer

It is old, and anything over a hundred years old is primary.

Answer

It holds numbers, and numbers are more reliable than words.

Answer

It is short, and short documents give facts without opinions.

Question 15

Text 1: the mayor's 1974 letter to residents about closing the ferry. Text 2: a city history website's page on that closing. Which sentence most likely comes from Text 1?

Accepted Answer

"I know this choice will make many of your mornings harder."

Answer

"Historians still argue about whether the closing helped us."

Answer

"The ferry's last year is now studied in local classrooms."

Answer

"Records from that era were later collected by the library."

Question 16

Text 1: the signed 1854 treaty itself. Text 2: a 2020 study guide about the treaty. What does Text 2 add that Text 1 does not hold?

Accepted Answer

An explanation of what the terms meant for each side.

Answer

The signatures the two sides placed on the agreement.

Answer

The wording the negotiators finally settled on in 1854.

Answer

The date on which the agreement first took effect.

Question 17

Text 1: Malik's journal entry from the night of the snowstorm. Text 2: a school newsletter piece written in May that quotes Malik. How does Text 2 use Text 1?

Accepted Answer

It quotes Malik's firsthand words as evidence for its own later account.

Answer

It turns Malik's entry into a secondary source by printing it.

Answer

It becomes a primary source because it holds Malik's own words.

Answer

It replaces Malik's entry, so readers no longer need the journal.

Question 18

Text 1, a miner's letter: "The dust choked us and I kept thinking of my children." Text 2, a history site: "The 1907 collapse pushed the state to require ventilation." How do they differ?

Accepted Answer

Text 1 gives one man's experience; Text 2 gives what followed.

Answer

Text 1 gives what followed; Text 2 gives one man's experience.

Answer

Text 1 explains why the mine collapsed; Text 2 tells how it felt.

Answer

Both give one man's experience, but Text 2 adds the date.

Question 19

Text 1: a keeper's log recording wind and ice each morning in 1901. Text 2: a 2020 climate paper studying logs like his. Why is Text 2 a secondary source?

Accepted Answer

It studies measurements other people recorded long before.

Answer

It uses charts, while the keeper wrote plain sentences.

Answer

Scientists wrote it, and the keeper was not a scientist.

Answer

It is longer, and long texts explain more than they record.

Question 20

Text 1: a farm ledger listing every bushel sold in 1893. Text 2: a 2015 history chapter on farm prices in 1893. What does Text 2 do that Text 1 does not?

Accepted Answer

It argues that the year's low prices ruined small farms.

Answer

It lists the amount of each crop the farm managed to sell.

Answer

It records the day on which each sale was written down.

Answer

It shows the farmer's own handwriting and daily habits.

Question 21

Text 1: a factory inspector's 1911 report written after he walked the floor. Text 2: a 2010 article on factory safety that cites the report. Which is primary, and why?

Accepted Answer

Text 1, because the inspector wrote down what he saw himself.

Answer

Text 2, because it studied more factories than he ever entered.

Answer

Text 1, because a government document counts as primary by rule.

Answer

Text 2, because it explains the old report for readers today.

Question 22

Text 1: a transcript of a veteran describing his 1944 crossing. Text 2: a documentary narration summarizing many such transcripts. Where do the two diverge in emphasis?

Accepted Answer

Text 1 dwells on one man's crossing; Text 2 sums up many crossings.

Answer

Text 1 sums up many crossings; Text 2 dwells on one man's crossing.

Answer

Both dwell on one man's crossing, since Text 2 is built from transcripts like his.

Answer

Text 1 gives only facts about the crossing; Text 2 gives only opinions about it.

Question 23

Text 1: the 1880 census pages for one county. Text 2: an article about that county's growth built from census data. What did Text 2 draw from Text 1?

Accepted Answer

The count of people living in the county that year.

Answer

The reasons families chose to move into the county.

Answer

The comparison of the county with three nearby ones.

Answer

The claim that the growth strained the local schools.

Question 24

Text 1: a grocer's 1935 receipts. Text 2: a book on Depression-era prices that averages figures from receipts like his. Which is the secondary source, and why?

Accepted Answer

Text 2, because it works from records other people made.

Answer

Text 1, because receipts are too short to count as sources.

Answer

Text 2, because a book is more formal than a paper receipt.

Answer

Text 1, because it was kept privately and never published.

Question 25

Text 1: a settler's 1852 trail diary. Text 2: a novel published in 2005 about a family on that same trail. Which is the primary source, and why?

Accepted Answer

Text 1, because a traveler recorded the journey as she made it.

Answer

Text 2, because it describes the trail in far greater detail.

Answer

Text 1, because it is older than the novel by many decades.

Answer

Text 2, because its author studied many trail diaries first.

Question 26

A student writing about the 1936 flood has a 2018 history article and a survivor's letter. Which task needs the letter?

Accepted Answer

Quoting how one person felt as water reached her door.

Answer

Learning how many towns the flood reached in the end.

Answer

Finding out what made the river rise so fast that week.

Answer

Comparing the flood with two later floods in the state.

Question 27

A student has a survivor's letter about the 1955 hurricane and a 2018 history article. Which question is the article better for answering?

Accepted Answer

How the storm changed the town over the next ten years.

Answer

What the wind sounded like from the survivor's porch.

Answer

What the survivor packed before leaving her house.

Answer

Which neighbor knocked on the survivor's door first.

Question 28

A blog quotes a rescuer's diary but changes "we waited two hours" to "we waited all day." Why is that a problem?

Accepted Answer

It changes what the firsthand source actually said.

Answer

It is not a problem, since both mean the wait was long.

Answer

The blog should have paraphrased the diary instead of quoting it.

Answer

The blog should have named the rescuer before using the quote.

Question 29

Text 1: a diary written during the 1912 blizzard. Text 2: a 2020 article about that blizzard that quotes the diary. Text 2 is the secondary source of the two.

Accepted Answer

True

Answer

False

Question 30

Text 1: a soldier's 1918 letter home from the front. Text 2: a 2015 biography that quotes that letter. Text 2 is the primary source of the two.

Accepted Answer

False

Answer

True

Question 31

Text 1, a resident's radio call: "The roof is peeling off above us." Text 2, a 2016 report: "The 1955 storm led the state to write new building codes." How do they differ?

Accepted Answer

Text 1 reports danger as it happens; Text 2 reports what came after.

Answer

Text 1 reports what came after; Text 2 reports danger as it happens.

Answer

Text 1 explains why the storm did damage; Text 2 describes the damage itself.

Answer

Text 1 gives an exact record of the storm; Text 2 gives one writer's opinion of it.

Question 32

A dockhand who fought the 1898 harbor fire told a reporter the next day what he had seen, and the reporter printed his words. What is that printed interview?

Accepted Answer

A primary source, because it carries the dockhand's own account.

Answer

A secondary source, because a reporter wrote it down for him.

Answer

A secondary source, because it appeared a day after the fire.

Answer

A primary source, because newspapers report facts, not views.

Question 33

A student's report says, "As the 1908 station log records, the train left at 6:12." Which best describes what the student did?

Accepted Answer

Used a primary record as evidence inside a later account.

Answer

Made the report a primary source by quoting the log.

Answer

Used a secondary source as evidence inside a later account.

Answer

Turned the station log into a secondary source by quoting it.

Question 34

Text 1: a shopkeeper's 1927 diary. Text 2: a 2018 town history saying the shop "smelled of wet wool all winter." Where did that detail most likely come from?

Accepted Answer

The shopkeeper's diary, which recorded daily details.

Answer

A 1927 newspaper ad listing the wool goods for sale.

Answer

The historian's own visit to the building today.

Answer

A 2018 interview with the building's current owner.

Question 35

Text 1: a photograph a farmer took of a 1935 dust storm over his fields. Text 2: a 2001 history of the Dust Bowl. Which question can Text 2 answer but Text 1 cannot?

Accepted Answer

How many farms across the plains were left by 1940.

Answer

How thick the dust looked above that farmer's fields.

Answer

What the sky over that one farm looked like that day.

Answer

How high the dust rose beside the farmhouse wall.

Question 36

Text 2, a 1995 article, says a sailor "never doubted the ship would hold." Text 1, the sailor's 1912 letter, says he "feared the worst all night." What does this show?

Accepted Answer

The article misrepresents what the sailor's own words say.

Answer

The letter must be wrong because the article is more recent.

Answer

The two accounts agree once the reader allows for style.

Answer

The sailor changed his mind between 1912 and the article.

Question 37

Why do historians read primary sources beside secondary sources about the same event?

Accepted Answer

To check a later writer's claims against firsthand records.

Answer

To trust whichever source is newer, since it knows more.

Answer

To replace older records with newer explanations of them.

Answer

To prove that firsthand records are always correct.

Question 38

A 2004 article and a 2019 podcast both describe the 1927 flood using the same rescue worker's journal. What is their shared relationship to that journal?

Accepted Answer

Both are later accounts drawing on one firsthand record.

Answer

Both are firsthand records of the flood as it happened.

Answer

Both stand in for the journal for readers studying it.

Answer

Both were made by people who knew the rescue worker.

Question 39

Text 1, a store owner's note: "They took the flour, and I let them." Text 2, a 1980 history: "Crowds seized supplies during the shortage." What changes in Text 2?

Accepted Answer

One owner's own choice becomes part of a general pattern.

Answer

A general pattern becomes one owner's single choice.

Answer

One owner's choice becomes the story of a single store being robbed.

Answer

A firsthand account becomes a direct quotation of the owner's words.

Question 40

A class wants to know how students felt on the first day their school opened in 1961. Which source fits that question best?

Accepted Answer

A letter a student wrote home during that first week.

Answer

A 2010 article on the school's history that describes opening day.

Answer

A recent interview with the school's current principal about its early years.

Answer

A 2005 book chapter on how schools in the state grew during the 1960s.

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BLASTROOM

BLASTROOM

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Primary and Secondary Sources on the Same Topic

Ways to Play

Device Games: Students play on their phones

Blast Go

Zombie Escape

Avalanche

Maze Blast

Cave Climb

Blast Out

Mystery Auction

Tour Guide

Food Truck Rush

Tug of War

Alien Blast

Glacier Rush

Board Games: Teacher-led, projected to the class

Like what you see?

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