ENGL302: Advanced Research, Writing, and Presenting

Week 3 Primary and Secondary Sources Assessment Directions and Rubric

This Assessment is part of the Assignments category, which is worth 15% of your overall grade.

Deadline

Due by the end of Week 3 at 11:59 pm, ET.

Completing this Assessment will help you to meet the following outcome:

Course Outcome

  • Analyze, interpret, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically integrate and cite primary and secondary sources into academic documents.

Goal: To successfully classify and discuss primary and secondary resources, comparing and contrasting their differences to analyze suitability for research projects.

Directions

For this assessment, you will be writing a mini-essay looking at two resources. The first resource is an interview with Leonard Nimoy, recorded live on CNN. The second resource is a news article talking about Nimoy’s interview after his passing. Both resources can be found in our Week 3 module.

To get started, review both resources carefully. You may want to take notes on things you noticed or what you took away from the source. Determine which source is the primary one and which source is considered secondary.

Once you have reviewed both sources, you are ready to start your essay. Your paper should consist of three paragraphs:

  1. Paragraph one should cover the primary resource. Identify which one is the primary resource and explain why.  Infer and describe the main idea and purpose of this resource.
  2. Paragraph two should cover the secondary resource. Identify which one is the secondary resource and explain why. Infer and describe the main idea and purpose of this resource.

In your third and final paragraph, consider some of the differences between the two sources. Compare the two sources and determine what may have been missing in one over the other. While looking at the differences, analyze which source type you think would be more useful for a research project such as your Portfolio Project. Recommend which source you would choose for a project. Justify your recommendation with examples.