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KINE 2P91: Social History of Sport and Physical Education

A guide to completing your Historical Sports Film Analysis assignment for KINE 2P91. Covers primary and secondary sources, where to find them, and how to search relevant databases. Includes APA style help.

Finding primary & secondary sources

For this assignment, you will be using both primary and secondary sources relevant to your topic. You can find primary sources by searching databases and newspapers, among other things. Below is a few sources of primary resources, as well as how to navigate searching each

On this page

What are Primary and Secondary Sources?

Primary sources:

  • A direct, firsthand account, from a person who was actually at or attended an event. Newspaper reports by a reporter on site, quotes from someone in attendance, tweets, speeches, diaries, etc. Original research with raw data is also included. 

Secondary sources:

  • What others say about an event. Documentaries, newspaper or magazine articles, books, or other media sources (television or radio transcripts, social media, etc.) interpreting the event.  
  • These sources will be found using a combination of internet and library database searches and will assist with your external analysis.

How do these sources support your assignment?

  • Provide background information on the time period
  • Identify key events, persons, settings
  • Provide details on the broader representation, or how representation was shared

Construct your search

You can search databases by entering simple keywords, but you can improve your search results by building your search using some of these tips and tricks. 

TIP EXAMPLE
Use AND between different concepts fish AND pollution AND habitat
Use OR between synonyms habitat OR ecosystem OR environment
Use quotations for phrases "climate change"  "Great Lakes"
Search alternate word endings Use * for root words to search variants of keyword (e.g., pollut* for pollution, polluting, polluted)
Use brackets to group terms fish AND (pollut* OR "climate change") AND (habitat* OR ecosystem* OR environment*)

Databases like ProQuest use Boolean Operators to help students find the best resources to use in their research projects, but not all databases search the same. Please see below for a list of newspaper databases and search tips.

Newspapers

Newspapers can be an amazing sources of information and the library has access to both historical collections as well as current subscriptions to some of the local, provincial and national newspapers. 

For your assignment, newspapers can provide insight into the social and political life of a particular time period, and can offer little-known details of historical events; even advertisements and obituaries can add to our understanding of the time period that the events of your chosen film takes place in.

Newspaper database search tips