SOURCE PAPER

1. Sort the sources into three categories before drawing up the MLA format. The three formats are

Primary Sources, Secondary Sources and Tertiary Sources. The sources you have received are a mix of

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources and you need to place all the Primary, Secondary or Tertiary

Sources under the correct heading.

A Primary Sources is the actual words of an actual participant or witness to an event or action.

Interviews, editorials, reports, or narratives by participants make up the majority of Primary Sources.

In the case of the Midway Assignment, “Midway, the Battle that Doomed Japan” was written by two

actual participants. This book could be employed as either a Primary or Secondary Source according

to the student’s judgement for their Critical Thinking Paper. Autobiographies can be employed as

Primary or Secondary Sources.

Secondary Sources are Books on a given event or action written to provide either extensive or

detailed knowledge on the event or action employing data gleaned from a number of primary sources

and other secondary sources. Biographies, historical descriptions and books or articles on specific

event or actions that employ more than one primary source are Secondary Sources.

Tertiary Sources are accounts of events or actions of a brief or cursory form that are found in

dictionaries, encyclopedias, library notes, Wikipedia or overviews and abstracts. These forms lack

detail and usually only employ a primary source to present a limited amount of data. These are not

academically acceptable sources and should never be used in a college level paper but might provide

new primary source material in their bibliographies.

2. To format your paper follow this outline:

CENTER THE SUBJECT OF THE SOURCE ASSIGNMENT

List Primary sources under the heading

PRIMARY SOURCES

List the sources employing MLA format, then provide a two or three sentence overview of the source.

Finally, state either “I would employ this source in my research paper.” Or “I would not employ this

source in my research paper. For this effort you can only select two Primary Sources. Once you have

listed and formatted all the Primary Sources create a new heading.

List Secondary Sources under the heading

SECONDARY SOURCES

List the sources employing MLA format, then provide a two or three sentence overview of the

source. Final select whether you would or would not employ only one of the secondary sources in

your research paper. Once you have listed and formatted all the Secondary Sources create a new

heading.

List Tertiary Sources under the heading

TERTIARY SOURCES

List the sources employing MLA format, then provide a two or three sentence overview of the source.

Tertiary Sources may lead you to better Primary or Secondary Sources in their bibliographies but they

should never be employed in a college level paper.

MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION FORMAT

Students are advised to employ the Purdue University Online Writing Lab by going to OWL//Purdue

University. Once at this cite highlight MLA Formatting and Style Guide and following the instruction.

It is up to you to learn this format since it is the basis for every modern citation form employed in

higher education papers throughout the nation and most of the English speaking world.