3 Types of Information

There are three types of information that can be used in the process of researching. These are required as steps which the information will be collected and analysed to increase our understanding of a topic or issue. The three basic kinds of information in order to look for materials are the primary information, the secondary information and the tertiary information.
Primary information is the information that is original, that has been obtained first hand by the researchers from the source. It is done through many forms such as conducting surveys through handouts that is given to people or by face-to-face surveys that is surveying in person. We can also obtained information through interviews that is going to a person and having a questions and answers session in private or group. Another one is through human resources such as from friends or relatives. It is considered original because these information are obtained personally and not through others.
Secondary information is defined as information that is derived from other information. It acts as pointers (indexes) to the primary sources, which have been selected and rearranged under subject headings, authors or other organisers. Examples of this type of informations are the library catalogues, encyclopedias, handbooks, reviews, databases and the internet. This is a relatively easy way of obtaining information because it is always there when needed although some information might be outdated and the information might be too wide to explore and needed some kind of summarising to be done. It can also be an arduous task to scan through thousands of pages and maybe a little too much information but it also open up lots of other possibilities of obtaining a new kind of information.
Tertiary information is the product of people reflecting on the things they or other people have recorded. This is mostly done in journals on a particular subject that have been researched and compiled in a single entry. This kind of information is arguably the most useful of the three as it tells how other people have solved or understood similar problems that they faced. It also exposes the subject to its tiny details. The information obtained here is reliable as it deals with only the specific subject that needed to be used.
Between these three types of information, I prefer the tertiary information as I have discussed above that it narrows the point of problems or subject that I am dealing with specifically. It is also very reliable and the easiest way of obtaining information as long as it is published for general use of the public and are not copyright controlled as I can be prosecuted for plagiarised.
Although there are three types of information, it is not exactly correct to precisely choose one type of information at any one time because you may prefer one type of acquiring information but the other two will somehow overlap into your procedure as it is strictly limited to only use one type of source. The information is greater if all three are utilised at the same time in researches.