How do I incorporate a primary source into my research paper?

I'm doing a term paper on the Great Depression and I found historical writings that I'd like to pull information from, but how exactly do I actually use them in the text of my paper? Also, how should such a source be parenthetically cited?

How do I incorporate a primary source into my research paper?
You paraphrase the info you want to use from the source. At the end of that text list where it came from. E.G.: Author Name, pg. # (s) Then you list that source at the end of the report in the Bibliography.
Reply:The accuracy and objectiveness of primary sources is a constant concern for historians. Participants and eyewitnesses may misunderstand events or distort their reports (deliberately or unconsciously) to enhance their own image or importance. Such effects can increase over time, and historians pay special attention to memory problems and efforts by participants to recall the past according to their own script. Government reports may be censored or altered for propaganda or coverup purposes. Less frequently, later documents may be the more accurate, as for example when a death leaves survivors feeling more comfortable about telling embarrassing details.





Accurate history is based on primary sources, as evaluated by the community of scholars, who report their findings in books, articles and papers. Primary sources are often difficult to interpret and may have hidden challenges. Obsolete meanings of familiar words and social context are among the traps that await the newcomer to historical studies. For this reason, interpretation of some primary texts is best left to those with advanced college or postgraduate training, or advanced self-study or informal training.





A primary source is not, by default, more authoritative or accurate than a secondary source. Secondary sources often are subjected to peer review, are well documented, and are often produced through institutions where methodological accuracy is important to the future of the author's career and reputation. A primary source like a journal entry, at best, only reflects one person's take on events, which may or may not be truthful, accurate, or complete. Historians subject both primary and secondary sources to a high level of scrutiny.





As a general rule, however, modern historians prefer to go back to available primary sources and to seek new (in other words, forgotten or lost) ones. Primary sources, whether accurate or not, offer new input into historical questions and most modern history revolves around heavy use of archives and special collections for the purpose of finding useful primary sources. A work on history is not likely to be taken seriously as scholarship if it only cites secondary sources, as it does not indicate that original research has been done.





As to the manner of incorporation, why not simply attach a facsimile or xerox copy as an appendix? The exact details for doing so can be found in the intructional manuals for reports and papers by, say, Kate Turabian.