Camille Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning,
In academic research, it's important to be able to distinguish between different types of sources. These differences often are contextual, meaning that a single source might fit in different categories depending on how you are using it and in what academic discipline you are writing.
Primary sources are the raw materials of scholarship.
Secondary sources report on or interpret primary sources.
Tertiary sources synthesize and present overviews of primary and secondary sources.
Scholarly sources present sophisticated, researched arguments using both primary and secondary sources and are written by experts.
Popular sources aim to inform or entertain and are intended for a general, non-specialized audience. In academic writing, popular sources most often are analyzed as primary sources.
BEAM is an acronym intended to help students think about the various ways we might use sources when writing a researched argument. Joseph Bizup, an English professor at Boston University, outlined the framework in a 2008 article. The idea has since been refined and adapted by many others.
Kai Bahls and Maya Horten are your Peer Research Advisors for 2021-22!
You can schedule an appointment with them here.
Kai and Maya are available in Library 146 for drop-in hours at the following times:
Sunday: 6:00-9:00pm
Monday: 6:00-9:00pm
Tuesday: 6:00-9:00pm
Wednesday: 6:00-9:00pm
No appointments necessary, just drop by!
