We encourage students to explore, appreciate, and use the ideas of others, but we expect proper attribution of those ideas. Even when describing the arguments or opinions of others entirely in your own words, you must give credit to the original author. Paraphrasing is the expression of another writer's words and ideas. A paraphrase does not just replace some words with synonyms or change the sentence pattern, but briefly restates the original document's core meaning in your own words. A primary source is a document or artifact written or created during the period you wish to study.
Secondary works are books or articles written after the fact.