Isaac

BBA225 Business Research Methods

Chu Hai College of Higher Education

Fall Semester 2013

Assignment 2

1. Explain how each of the five evaluation factors for a secondary source influences its management decision-making value: (a) Purpose, (b) Scope, (c) Authority, (d) Audience, (e) Format

2. Primary sources

Definition:

Primary sources are original materials. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation. Primary sources are original materials on which other research is based. They are usually the first formal appearance of results in physical, print or electronic format. They present original thinking, report a discovery, or share new information

Examples include:

• Artifacts (e.g. coins, plant specimens, fossils, furniture, tools, clothing, all from the time under study);

• Audio recordings (e.g. radio programs)

• Diaries;

• Internet communications on email, listservs;

• Interviews (e.g., oral histories, telephone, e-mail);

• Journal articles published in peer-reviewed publications;

• Letters;

Secondary sources

Definition:

Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources. Generally, they are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence. However, what some define as a secondary source, others define as a tertiary source. Context is everything.

Examples include:

• Bibliographies (also considered tertiary);

• Biographical works;

• Commentaries, criticisms;

• Dictionaries, Encyclopedias (also considered tertiary);

• Histories;

Tertiary sources

Definition:

Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources.

Examples include:

• Almanacs;

• Bibliographies (also considered...