The primary source for your writing project is the source that provides the
most significant information to support the thesis statement on the subject of
your writing project. If your writing project is a research paper, your primary
source would be a book that is written on the subject of your research paper.
For example, if your research paper is about the Public Schools of Prince
Edward County, Virginia, then your primary source would be a book about
the Public Schools of Prince Edward County, Virginia. If your writing
project is an article review, your primary source would be the article that you
are reviewing. For example, "Educational Equality" (the article review on
the "What is Research?" page of this site) uses as its primary source the
article, written by Richard J. Murnane, "Improving the Education of Children
Living in Poverty."
Although you generally may need only one primary source for writing
projects such as article reviews, essays, or similar types of writing projects,
your should have as many secondary sources that are necessary to support
your thesis statement. For a research paper, an argumentative essay, or a
similar type of writing project, a good general rule is to have five sources: one
primary source and four secondary sources. This will allow you to use one of
your secondary sources to support the opposition to your argument and your
primary source and four of the secondary sources to support your argument
and refute the opposition to your argument.
Your writing project will always reflect the quality, or the lack of quality, of
your sources. One quality primary source and four quality secondary sources
will produce a writing project with a higher quality result than a writing project
produced using twenty, low-quality sources. Note for UDC and WMCU
member students: the following link will take you to the Aladin login page,
, an excellent database
for you to use for locating a primary source because it will allow you to search
its database for books and articles on the subject of your writing project
throughout the WMCU member institutions.
Another good general rule, for writing projects that require documented
sources, is to limit your use of websites. This is because "websites can be
created by anyone with an Internet address" and as a result, many of them are
of questionable quality.
Kelly Griffith, Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet (Boston: Thompson Wadsworth, 2006), 279.
Griffith, supra note 1.
Griffith, supra note 1, 297.
Bibliography
Griffith, Kelley. Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet.
Boston: Thompson Wadsworth, 2006.
UDC Reading / Writing Connection Writing Tutorials