The Difference between Primary and Secondary Resources with examples

        Historical sources will tell us about history and it can be obtained from artifacts, literary sources, documents, etc., and will help us understand the event or what happened a long time ago from the point of view of the people who lived through them. This historical source is classified into two which are primary sources and secondary sources.  When we say primary sources, it includes diaries, letters, interviews, speeches, government records, videos, photographs, diaries, memos, and the like. Primary sources are written or produced by someone who has first-hand testimony or experience of the event, a source produced at the same time as the event or topic being studied. It is the original materials. This is also considered the most direct evidence of the event or time since it was created or witnessed by the people present at the time. For example, we are studying the declaration of martial law, and the primary sources we can consider are the certified true copy of Proclamation Number 1081, and the interview of Kit Tatad and Johnny Juan Ponce Enrile can be used as primary sources.  This primary source is not modified by interpretation, unlike the Secondary sources it interprets the historical event. The author who did not experience first-hand or participated in an event used primary sources to produce the material. They analyze, describe and interpret the first-hand account of the other people so they can make their own context to an event that is more accessible to us.  Examples of secondary sources are academic books, journal articles, essays, reviews, and the like. Furthermore, let's say Teodoro Agoncillo's classic work on Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan revolt of 1896 where this book was written in 1947 in order to hook the present and the past using primary sources. The primary sources used by Agoncillo are the documents of the Katipunan, interviews with the veterans of the revolutions, and the correspondence between and among katipuneros. Thus, to know whether it is a primary or secondary sources, bear in mind that the source created by someone directly involved in the events is primary while it is done by another researcher and summarizes information in other sources then it is a secondary source.