Evaluating Different Formats
Primary Sources and Secondary SourcesA primary source is the text of the original document; a secondary source is the history, criticism, review, or research done about the original document.
| Primary Source | Corresponding Secondary Source |
| Othello, by William Shakespeare | Magic in the Web: Action and Language in Othello, by Robert Bechtold Heilman |
| Magna Carta: Text and Commentary, by the Magna Carta Commission of Virginia | From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087-1216, by Austin Lane Poole |
| Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), online document from database Original Sources | “Brown at 40: Reassessing the Case that Changed Public Education in the United States” by Mary-Christine Phillip, in Black Issues in Higher Education, vol. 23 no. 10 (Jan 13 1994), p. 8+ |
| Nursing as a Spiritual Practice, by Janet A. Macrae (Springer Publishing, 2001) | “Book Reviews: Nursing as a Spiritual Practice” by Cynthia Connelly, in AORN Journal, vol. 75 iss. 6 (June 2002), p. 1185 |
Editions, Reprints, and Director’s Cuts: How They Can Make a Difference
Editions are re-publications of the same title with new information added or old information deleted. Some information may only be in one particular edition. Some editions are reprints of the same title (source information) with a new preface, forward, or commentary by current scholars.
Reprints are re-publications of the same title without any new information added or old information deleted. Generally, it’s simply a copy of the same title. Sometimes the publisher or producer will even make the copy look like the original document. Whether citing the original document or its reprint, you are citing exactly the same source information.
Director’s Cuts may also be called “special editions”. Usually these are multimedia works where additional or supplemental material is added. They represent changes to the original information source because the multimedia work has been modified from its original exhibition date.