How to use secondary sources in essays

Secondary sources are valuable in essays as they show wider reading, understanding, but also different interpretations which hit objectives in A-level Essays. Secondary sources need to be: effectively placed in your essay, questioned ( how are they good and bad) and link to the text you're discussing. It is generally a good idea to place these at the beginning of your essay or paragraph as you can base your argument around it. A particularly good idea, to get extra marks, is to find two sources that agree with or contradict each other. Here is an example regarding female performance in Kate Chopin's, The Awakening This performance could be seen as being ingrained into Edna; linking to John Burger’s Ways of Seeing, which presents how women are surveyed by men but are also the surveyors of themselves. Therefore, women unconsciously perform in order to be suitably analysed, both internally and externally. This essay was first published in 1977, a period in time where authority was deconstructed. Yet, its ideas are slightly dated, as it often tends towards gender stereotypes. Nonetheless, the basic principles are relevant to The Awakening, which is shown at the beginning of the novel, ‘I was really not conscious of thinking of anything’. linking to = introduces the source which presents = explaining the source Therefore= expands on the source First published = context of the source Yet = questions the source which is shown= links to your text