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UCOR 101: Thinking & Writing Across the Curriculum (Dr. Speese): Home

This page will help students find Western primary sources giving Western views on Africans, and African primary sources in which Africans express their own views of themselves


Primary Source:  (also called an original source or evidence) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Source:

Secondary Source: Secondary sources were created by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. For a historical research project, secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles. A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. Source:

Column: A column is a piece of writing in a newspaper or magazine that is written by the same person and appears regularly, usually on a particular subject. Source:

Editoral: A statement in a newspaper or magazine, or on radio or television, that expresses the opinion of the editors or owners on a subject of particular interest. Source:

Op-Ed: A page or section of a newspaper with signed articles expressing personal opinions, usually opposite the editorial page. Source:

Popular: Sources written with a general audience in mind, they are designed to communicate information to people with an average education, not for specialists in an academic discipline. Magazines, newspapers, and most websites are "popular" sources.

Scholarly: A source written by an expert in an academic discipline for other experts in that discipline. They freely use the jargon specific to that academic discipline. Though these are excellent sources of detailed information, and may be used by the general public, the average person is not part of the target audience of these sources.

"Magazines of Opinion": These are publications which do not report the news, but provide comment from a particular viewpoint (conservative, liberal, libertarian, etc.) on current events. The articles in them are not objective, nor do they claim to be.

Western Media Sources Header Image

All of these resources can be accessed from off-campus, but you will need to enter your Multipass username and password when you click on a link below.

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Africa Learning Community, McAnulty College