Public Sector Enforcement Report Writing

Primary Sources

• Written documents or other works created during the time being studied, which offers an inside view of a particular event
• Original research including raw data, surveys, and observations

Examples of primary sources include: Official documents, diaries, speeches, letters, interviews, newspaper articles from the time of the event, autobiographies, pamphlets, posters, artworks, research reports.

Secondary Sources

• Works, often written by scholars, that provide critical interpretations of historical events or data gathered from multiple sources
• Second hand account of events that based on primary sources

Examples of secondary sources include:  textbooks, encyclopedias, academic journal articles and books, newspaper articles, interpretive websites.

Watch this short video from University of Victoria for more details: