ES 1 questions This question will begin with something like “How useful is source …. in investigating about ….” or “How valuable is source…. as evidence of…..” To begin your answer, you must start by answering the question with something like ” Source…. is quite useful/valuable - not very useful/valuable - very useful/ valuable in investigating….”

ES 1 continued You now need to start justifying the answer given in your first sentence. It is a good idea to start with the positive reasons ie why the source IS useful, and go through ALL of them before going on to explain why the source is LESS valuable or LESS useful. It is a good idea to start your reasons with discussing who WROTE the source ie the author. The caption (ie bit of writing above the source itself) will usually tell you who wrote it and when. This caption will also tell you whether it is a primary or secondary source and when it was written. (Use words such as eyewitness, benefit of hindsight, expert, photograph, artist’s impression, cartoon, etc). Don’t forget to explain WHY these things make the source useful.

ES1 continued You should now discuss WHEN the source is from. Remember that, if you use the term ”contemporary” you have to say contemporary with what! Remember also that a few years here or there will not really affect the accuracy of the source’s info. Royal Commissions and government figures will have been carefully put together and checked. Photographs are from the exact time and place stated, and are an exact representation of the thing photographed.

ES 1 continued The next thing worth discussing is accuracy/ “agrees with my own knowledge”. If you use this argument, you must back it up by explaining some of your own knowledge, or you won’t get a mark. You may also need to discuss the purpose of the source. Is it a speech meant to persuade people of something? Is it a cartoon intended to make a point about a point of view? Is it propaganda? A letter to a newspaper? Make sure you explain why this makes it more or less valuable. Remember, just because a source is biased, it can still be valuable, depending on the question.

ES1 continued Having discussed the main positives about the source, you should now discuss the limitations. It is a good idea to take a new line/paragraph for this as is shows organisation of your ideas. Limitations come in lots of forms – bias, doesn’t fully describe…, one place/one time, only discusses the negatives/positives, cartoon (exaggeration), artist’s impression, only covers part of the period in the question, etc, etc, etc. It’s a good idea to have some positives and negatives about the source’s usefulness or value, especially at Credit.

ES 1 continued (last one!) Be careful that your limitations don’t cancel each other out. You can’t say a source is useful because it’s by an expert historian and then criticise it because it’s not by an eyewitness or say it’s useful because the photo is typical and then say it’s less useful because it’s only one place, one time! Having explained all your useful/less useful comments, finish your answer with a conclusion ie “Therefore, Source….is quite/ not very/very/fairly useful – valuable for investigating – as evidence of….”. NOT having a clear answer to the question will lose you a mark.

ES 2 questions This type of question asks you to COMPARE the information or/and opinions in TWO sources, but the question itself is a SINGLE question. DON’T confuse this with an ES 5.ES 5s are always in TWO PARTS. You DO NOT do a grid for an ES 2 question. This type of question will begin with something like “How far do Sources…and… agree about…..?” or “To what extent do sources ….and….share the view that…?”

ES 2 continued You must read the sources very carefully before trying to answer and try to get clear in your mind which words and phrases show agreement or disagreement. There are USUALLY some of EACH, especially at CREDIT. Ask yourself if there are more agreements than disagreements, or the other way round, or are they pretty balanced?

ES 2 continued Start your answer by answering the question ie write something like “Sources …and… agree very little/quite a lot/only partly…. about….” Then go on to prove your opinion by comparing quotes from each source one by one, point by point (PING-PONG) ie you should be saying things like “Source …agrees with source.. about…because Source … says “……” and Source….says ”……” or “Sources …and …disagree about….because Source …says “….” but Source….says “….”. Do all the agreements first, then any or all disagreements. ( IF that is suitable for the question).

ES 2 (last one!) Having done all the agreements and disagreements, you must then have a conclusion, in which you give an overall opinion ie something like “Therefore Sources…. and ….mostly agree about….” or “Sources….and ….mostly disagree about…..”. If you do NOT provide a clear anser to the question somewhere in your answer, you will LOSE a mark!

ES 3 questions In this type of question, you will be asked to identify and explain the attitude or opinion expressed in a source. The question will usually begin with something like “ Discuss the attitude of the author of Source…. about…..” or ( more rarely) “ What is the opinion of the author of Source…. about….?” You should begin your answer with a summary of the author’s overall, general attitude or feeling, NOT a summary or repetition of what he actually says.

ES 3 continued (last one!)  Start your answer by saying something like ”The author of Source… is hostile towards/ in favour of/ enthusiastic about/ resentful of/ furious about….”  The rest of your answer should then be made up by quoting the author’s words and explaining them to prove your judgement is accurate. The author may use emotional language or clearly show bias and you have to use these words or phrases to prove your point. DO NOT just copy chunks without any explanation. You should try to make three or four points about what has been written.  Finish your answer with a clear conclusion, answering the question.

ES 4 questions This type of question usually begins “How fully does source…..describe/explain….?” and it will always follow a single source with SOME information included in it about the topic in question. What you are trying to show the marker is that YOU know that the source doesn’t include everything you know about the topic and that you know what it hasn’t and has missed out.

ES 4 continued To begin your answer, you MUST answer the question ie start with something like “Source….only partly explains…., but misses out a number of facts about….”. Having done this, you then go on to write about what the source DOES include, using recalled knowledge to explain the source points in a bit more detail. There WILL be marks for doing this so DON’T forget to do it!

ES 4(last one!) You then go on to explain all the points the source DID NOT include about the topic in question. For each well-explained point you should get a mark. If you just write a list of points with no explanation, you will only get one mark for the whole list. A new paragraph will show good organisation. The last sentence in this type of question is a conclusion ie say something like “Therefore although Source….does include some information about…., it misses out some other important factors.” Don’t start repeating what it has missed out! If you do Not include a clear answer to the question (ie source … doe quite fully, not very fully, etc) somewhere in your answer, you will LOSE a mark.

ES 5 questions This will ask you to SELECT evidence ie quotes from TWO (General) or THREE (Credit) sources about the SAME topic. The question will be divided into TWO parts. It is the ONLY question which looks like this and the ONLY one you can answer in this way. At Credit, you should draw a GRID for your answers; at General two PARAGRAPHS (separated by a missed line) or headings will do. PLEASE give yourself plenty of space and use a ruler if possible.

ES 5 continued All you have to do is pick out the EXACT words and phrases that answer the question and put them under the correct heading or space in the grid. Put them in “quotation marks”. You can edit the source, but it can be safer not to. The danger is that you cut out the important bit! DO NOT simply copy whole chunks of the source. You must show that you have CHOSEN particular bits because you understand that they are relevant and answer the question asked.

ES 5 (last one!) You do NOT have to explain any of the quotes, put them into your own words or put them into sentences. In Credit, if you have to read the source carefully and if you think that there is NO EVIDENCE in that source for that question, you should write “no evidence” in the correct space in the grid. You don’t gain marks for this, but it will encourage you to look for at least six quotes from the sources where there is evidence. If your grid isn’t clearly laid out or is confusing, you may lose marks. If you do NOT show evidence from BOTH sides of the question, you will be marked out of a maximum of THREE marks.

ES 6 questions This type of question is ONLY included in Unit 1 and will be the last question in Unit 1, Context B. You must be prepared at General and Credit to use BOTH recalled knowledge AND material from the sources to write your answer. The question asks you to examine a given issue and, using sources and recalled knowledge, draw a balanced and well-supported conclusion. In other words, it asks you to look at an argument in a “Changing Life….” topic and make a judgement about it, having first discussed source evidence and your own recalled knowledge about this issue.

ES 6 continued You should begin your answer by giving some BRIEF indication of what your argument is eg “ Population growth between….. and …was partly due to medical factors, but…..” or “Railways did benefit the vast majority of the population, but….”. When you have done this, go through the relevant points FROM THE SOURCES, explaining them more clearly using recall and making clear which side of the argument they support. If you launch straight into “recalled only” points, you are likely to lose marks as the question will TELL you to use both source and recalled information. (Your ES 5 grid will be very useful in this part of your answer as you’ve already picked out many of the relevant ideas.)

ES 6 questions (last one!) When you have explained the source points, you then should take a new paragraph to explain your own arguments from recall. Remember not to list…this will earn very few - if any - marks. It is important that your argument is well-organised, so put all the points for together, then all the againsts, or the factors that agree, then all that disagree or whatever the question calls for. Finish with a conclusion, which at Credit must be BALANCED, ie a statement that shows that YOU know that there are two sides to the argument. If ANY ONE of balance, source analysis, a clear answer or recall is missing from your answer, your response will be marked out of a maximum of TWO marks!!! Remember, Balance, Recall, Answer, Source!