Information

Using your reading for inspiration

As you listen to your lectures and read around your subject, take note of the primary material that scholars use as evidence for the opinions they express in their work

What kind of questions can they answer with reference to this data?
How secure are their conclusions? And how do they express this?
What are the limitations of this material in answering the questions the scholars had? Again, how do they write about these limitations?
Note down any verbs or phrases commonly used in your discipline to present or discuss primary evidence

Referring to this material within your essay

The tools available to you to refer to written material are exactly the same as secondary sources - you need to choose whether to quote, paraphrase or summarise - look back at those materials to remind yourself of the key points made Quote, paraphrase or summarise
When looking at other material objects, you will need to describe them - with particular reference to the key features that are relevant to your discussion. This is true whether or not you include an image of the object concerned
Other primary data might be included in the form of tables, graphs or diagrams. Again, these cannot be left to stand alone un-commented on. Your job here is to pick out the key features and present them to your reader in the main body of your essay

KEY POINTS:

As you progress through your academic career, the kind of questions you might be investigating will become more specialised, or more complex, but the material remains the same. The examples used to illustrate the units in this module may be first, second or final year assignment tasks, but the methodologies used to present and interrogate the material might be useful for anyone
The mechanics of documentation - i.e. referencing different sources of evidence - will be available via your department, so do ask your tutors, or pop a question over to the Library via 'Just Ask'. That's what they are there for, and they will be glad to help