One of the essential elements of writing history is to have sources. The only other option is omniscience. While many of us may pretend to have the latter, the reality is we must use the former. However, there are many types of sources, used for a variety of different purposes. Besides having a source, the writer needs to know when and how to use them.
Some of these sources include, but are not limited to, books, periodicals (magazines and newspapers), special collection archival items, government documents, unpublished manuscripts, TV, radio, personal interviews and correspondence, the internet and related digital sources, and mental telepathy. A myriad of other sources might also be available. These would include archaeological evidence, such as clothing, personal items, buildings, and other potential sources of information. Sources can be classed into primary sources, which give firsthand evidence, or secondary sources, which are an evaluation of primary and other secondary sources. Each of these sources is particularly suited to acquiring certain types of information. Secondary sources such as books, for example, are useful for synthesizing various types of information, and usually provide a certain perspective or argument. This makes them especially useful for studies over time, although they are limited in evaluating recent events. Although magazines can be useful for determining current events, their chief advantage as a secondary source lies in being geared to a specific topic. Many internet sites and other technological resources contain a wealth of information on an ever-increasing variety of data. Generally, unless someone is trying to make a profit on some information or an idea, and quite often when they are, that information can be found on the internet. TV and radio are widely used. They can prove beneficial as primary or secondary sources, but are often biased and are difficult to reference without a recording or transcript.
Primary sources are excellent for obtaining firsthand information, but like secondary sources, each type has its drawback. Personal interviews, for example, are useful for relatively recent topics where some participants may still be alive. However, these can be subject to the limitations of memory. Newspapers are generally useful for obtaining information on events as they happened, but it is difficult to reconstruct an entire movement from a particular issue. Government documents provide highly pertinent information on many subjects, but must be declassified before viewed. While U.S. military strategies during World War II may be found, for instance, the current activities of the CIA would not. Unpublished manuscripts, such as journals, often provide intimate details about the lives of individuals. However, these are very rare, and are often corrupted by personal bias. Nonverbal artifacts may be the only way to learn about certain ancient cultures, but conclusions are often sketchy. Mental telepathy can provide information that may not be accessible in any other way, but has not been proven scientifically and is not accepted as a credible source.
Two of the sources I propose to use in my paper are The Ensign and The Church News. The Ensign and its predecessor The Improvement Era function(ed) as a monthly magazine for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quite often, they contain information on particular regions of the world, as well as various articles for the general membership of the Church. The Church News is a weekly newspaper containing information on current events. I could use The Church News to reconstruct the history of the stakes in a region by finding when various stake presidencies were called. Certain articles in The Ensign would be useful to evaluate the overall history of the Church in a particular region. Each source has its limitations. Neither has the advantage of foresight to evaluate trends in light of future developments. Hindsight, to a degree, is also limited because of the small temporal removal from the stories described. However, because of their high relevance to my topic, I will heavily rely on these sources.
The amount of potential sources is vast. These sources should be qualified on the basis of their usefulness to the current topic. Some sources are more useful than others for particular subjects. Proper decisions based on the germaneness of the source to the topic can determine which sources to emphasize and which to exclude. However, no matter what decision is ultimately reached, sources must be utilized to produce a coherent research paper. That is, unless you're omniscient.