In the academic world, these are defined as 'primary sources' and 'secondary sources'. An eyewitness to an event is a primary source. Someone who is writing about the event and has learned his or her information from the primary source person (through an interview, for example) is a secondary source.

Other examples of primary sources:

A diary
A picture
Letters, including business and personal correspondence
Original/public documents
Any of these reproduced in a secondary source

Other examples of secondary sources:

A textbook
An essay or discussion reviewing ideas expressed by others on a topic

In your academic (college) or professional career, you will read many books, articles, and other sources of information. Always consider the source: you should know what you are reading, who the author is (who wrote it) and how much authority is accorded to that author's work.

One reason for this is that each writer has his or her own 'perspective', 'point of view' or 'slant' (bias) on the subject. Sometimes a writer's perspective is related to his or her personal experiences and sometimes a writer's point of view is the result of a philosophical, political or social outlook on life.

If you understand the writer's point of view or why they are writing what they are writing (in slang we say, 'where they are coming from'), then you can often better appreciate what they are saying and consider the information from a more instructive perspective.

To summarize the proving process, we can list the following steps:

Step 1 is motivation: step one, you will have noticed, is always motivation. That is because human beings are independent agents: they have free will. This means that one cannot force them to acquire skills and knowledge, they must want to do this. I have made this point many times, especially in this chapter, and I rely on your ability to find your motivation to learn standard formal English. Without this investment of yours, there will not be any teaching, learning, or proving.

Step 2 could, once again, be considered 'defining your terms'. In this case, the 'terms' that you need defined are the things ('elements' or 'aspects' or 'facets') of what would be considered to be proof (what would 'constitute' proof) in this situation. The young adult and the parents would have to agree, up front (at the beginning), as to what 'proof' would convince the parents to allow the child to live on his or her own.

For example, after some discussion, it might turn out that the parents might want to see more income than the young adult might feel is necessary. The child might believe that $200 per week would be enough money while the parents might think that $2,000 per month would be necessary.

In a college class, the students are told how they will be graded. For example, 10% for class discussion, 20% for quizzes, 30% for the mid-term and 40% for the final exam.

On the job, workers are often evaluated and valued by such measures as their productivity (how much they produce), their reliability (whether they come to work on time), accuracy (how well they do their jobs, the quality of their work) and attitude towards the job (how seriously they take they work).

Step 3 would be the presentation of the actual proof. In this case, a paycheck, a clean room and clean clothes, and a home-cooked meal. The reason these things would constitute proof is that all parties concerned have agreed that they would be the required proof.

In a formal learning/teaching situation, proof (demonstration of what has been learned) often comes in the form of a test.

Most students believe that a test shows whether the learners have been good students. Tests really show how well ('effectively') the teacher has taught the students. It is really a test of the teacher, although the students 'take it'. As a teacher, whenever one of my students fails, or fails to grasp an important concept that could affect their lives, I regard it as my failure.

The true test of a student (and the teacher) is whether the student can exceed the level of the teacher, by building on the knowledge, experience and wisdom the teacher shares.

A final note on the learning/teaching/proving process: when you identify the components (steps) in these processes, you are learning aspects of the 'discipline' of education. The word "discipline" has many synonyms, including 'regulation', 'order', 'control', 'restraint' and 'obedience'.

In this case, it means a formal organization of certain knowledge or knowledge that has been structured ('organized', 'ordered') from a certain perspective ('point of view' or 'vantage point'). In this case, the information is organized from the point of view of education, that is, the learning/teaching/proving process).