SUBJECT: English 10 4th Quarter
Activity 2: Identifying and Citing Primary and Secondary Sources
TOPIC: Research Writing DATE:
LEARNING TARGETS: April 11-12, 2024
• Differentiate between primary and secondary sources.
• Identify examples of each, and evaluate their reliability and relevance.
• Practice the proper citation format for primary and secondary sources.
NAME: SECTION:
CONCEPT NOTES
Academic writing relies on your ability to find credible and reliable sources. Sources are the books, websites, articles,
or anything else you use to conduct your research and support your argument or perspective. Sources fall into two
main categories: primary and secondary.
Both provide valuable information for you to use in academic writing, but they provide different kinds of value. While
a primary source provides direct access to an original work for you to discuss or analyze, a secondary source
gives you a look at that work from another writer’s perspective.
PRIMARY SOURCE
Primary sources include raw information and first-hand evidence about the people, events or issues that you are
researching. It might be a witness account of an event, data from a study, or an original work. When you work with a
primary source, you’re doing your own analysis of the work in question.
Some examples of primary sources include:
• Letters and journals
• Photographs
• Recorded interviews
• Autobiographies
• Novels, short stories or poems
• Films
• Recordings of speeches
• Data from studies or surveys
• Published essays or opinion pieces
SECONDARY SOURCE
Secondary sources provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers, academics or
professionals. They may describe, interpret, evaluate or analyze the primary sources. These are helpful to understand
how the work has been interpreted or perceived by others.
Some examples of secondary sources include:
• Essays analyzing other texts e.g. literature, works of art, film etc.
• Biographies of famous people
• Book or film reviews
• Other articles, essays, or scholarly journals by academics or professional critics
• Documentaries about events or issues
• Books, media articles, or textbooks that discuss specific concepts, events, experiments, movements, or
literary or artistic works.
Primary and secondary sources fulfil different needs and this will depend on the
type of text you are writing. Primary sources are more credible when used as
evidence but secondary sources can help to support your position. The two
types complement each other to help you produce a well-rounded and
convincing text.
NAME & SECTION:
EXERCISE: IDENTIFYING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
INSTRUCTION: SCORE:
The following statements present real life-life use of primary and
secondary sources. Identify if the type of source involved in the statement
by encircling the correct option.
1. You were researching the history of World War II, and you were able to obtain letters written by soldiers
on the battlefield providing their accounts of their experiences and emotions of during the war.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
2. Anne was investigating climate change and she was able to interview a weather specialist at PAGASA
who discussed the temperature records and satellite data they’ve collected within the last decade.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
3. In an attempt to further understand the scale of police violence in the Philippines, you decided to watch
a documentary by an independent journalist tackling the rampant cases of police brutality in Manila.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
4. From your textbook in Social Studies, you were able to gather facts about the increasing number of out
of school youth in Region 8.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
5. You conducted an interview within your school campus to determine how teachers felt about the new
MATATAG Curriculum to be implement by DepEd in 2024.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
6. You summarized the findings in a Peer-reviewed Journal so you can include it in the Review of Related
Literature of you research paper.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
7. Your research team quoted the opinion piece of Richard Heydarain on The Philippine Daily Inquirer about
political dynasties in the Philippine government.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
8. In a study on the effects of social media on teenagers, you interviewed your peers to provide direct
insights into their experiences and behaviors.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
9. To answer your narrative essay assignment in English about the life and involvement of the youth
population during the Martial Law era in the Philippines you and your friends decided to watch the film
‘Pisay’ directed by Auraeus Solito.
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
10. In studying the life and works of Maya Angelou, you turn to her autobiography 'I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings.'
A. Primary Source B. Secondary Source
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CONCEPT NOTES
CITING YOUR SOURCES
A citation (pronounced as sai·tay·shn) is when you reference a source, such as a website, book, or article.
A work cited or reference page gives complete information about that source so your reader can verify your
claims. You must cite when using quotes, statistics, uncommon knowledge, and when you are
paraphrasing.
If we do not include citations in our writing, especially in research, we are at risk of plagiarism or claiming
someone else’s work or idea as our own.
There are 3 different methods of citation the APA, MLA, and Chicago Style. In your research writing activity,
we will be using the American Psychological Association Style 7th Edition (APA).
The basic format for an APA citation is:
Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Title of the book. Publisher.
Example: Smith, J. (2005). The Art of Citation. Academic Press.
Important Points to Remember:
• Be mindful of the punctuations used like the placement of parenthesis and periods.
• The title of the source should always be italicized.
When your source is a website with no author or publication date indicated, this is how you should
write your citation:
Title of the webpage. (n.d.). Website Name. URL
Example: How to Cite Sources. (n.d.). The Valid Website. https://www.example.com/cite
The above-given samples are the usual format that appear in the Reference list that is found on the last
page of your research paper, and they provide the full details of the sources you cited. There is another
process of citing, and that is called an in-text citation. In-text citations appear within the body of the paper,
directly referencing a specific source used in the text.
These are the 2 formats of in-text citations:
Parenthetical Citation: (Author’s last name, publication year)
Example: (Cruz, 2023)
You use a parenthetical citation when you want to credit the source but you do not mention them as part
of the sentence.
Example: According to recent research (Cruz, 2023), climate change has had significant impacts on
global biodiversity.
Narrative Citation: Author’s last name (publication year)
Example: Cruz (2023)
You use a narrative citation when you mention the source and make them a part of the sentence.
Example: Cruz (2023) uncovered that climate change has had significant impacts on global biodiversity.
When citing sources for your research paper,
essay, or any other academic write-up, the
general rule of thumb is that they should not be
older than 5 to 10 years to maintain the
relevance and accuracy of information.
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NAME & SECTION:
ACTIVITY 2: CITING SOURCES
INSTRUCTION: SCORE:
Provide the correct answers to the process questions below in the spaces
provided. Answer in the shortest and most accurate way you can.
1. Identify the correct APA citation format for a source with one author.
2. What is the correct APA citation format for a source with no definite author or publication
date?
3. In a parenthetical in-text citation format, how should you format the author’s name and
date of publication?
4. What is the difference between the citation format for the Reference list and an in-text
citation?
5. How old should your sources be for them to be considered as a valid and relevant
source in research writing?
6. Assemble the following details into an APA citation for the Reference list and an APA
narrative citation.
Title: "Effects of Carbon Emissions on the Heat Index"
Author: John Smith
Publication Year: 2023
Journal: Environmental Science
Content: Revealed that carbon emissions have significantly increased the standard heat
index up to 5 degrees in the Philippines.
REFERENCE:
Narrative Citation:
