Primary Source
The original record of a quote — the book, letter, speech, or recording in which it first appeared.
A primary source is the original, first-hand record of a quotation. For a book, it is the book itself, ideally the first edition. For a speech, it is the transcript or recording. For a letter, it is the manuscript or the verified printed edition. Anything else — a biographer's recollection, a newspaper paraphrase, a later anthology — is a secondary source.
Quotation research begins and ends with the primary source. If the line is in the book on the page the citation gives, the quote is verified. If it is not, every later use of the line is suspect.
When the primary source is genuinely unrecoverable — for instance, a remark made privately in conversation — the next best evidence is a contemporaneous secondary source: a letter from someone who was present, written soon after.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.”
Keep reading the glossary
A later account that reports a quote, rather than recording it directly.
A formal reference that lets a reader locate the source of a quote.
The act of naming the original speaker or writer of a quote.
Assigning a quote to the wrong person — the most common error in quotation.