Praxis Elementary Education RLA And Social Studies (5007) Practice Test

Understanding the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources helps you see how information is produced and used. A tertiary source gathers and condenses material from primary and secondary sources to give an overview or reference, like encyclopedias and textbooks. This is why it’s the correct choice here: it describes a collection that brings together original materials and analyses to present consolidated knowledge. The other options describe materials that come directly from someone’s experiences or original work: a diary entry records an individual’s firsthand experiences; a peer-reviewed research article presents new findings from original research; a firsthand interview recording captures a direct account from a person. These are primary sources, not tertiary, because they are original rather than synthesized summaries.