Source Questions

Question 1

Source Question 1 - Compare
How far do these two sources agree? (7)

Answer 1

Don’t need to evaluate
Two long written extracts from historians
Two agree and two disagree paras
Final mark is the big message (often linked to the title of the source paper)

Eg. These sources agree that… A argues that… B argues that… Both sources suggest…

These sources disagree on… A argues that… B argues that… While A suggests…, B argues…

X2

Question 2

Source Question 1 - Compare
Study Sources A and B. How similar are the messages of these two cartoonists? Explain your answer using details of the source and your knowledge. (8)

Answer 2

This is similar to the ’How far do these sources agree’. The major difference is that you will have cartoons
You have to explain agreements and disagreements of the messages of the cartoon
In contrast to the ‘How far do these sources agree’, there is not always both agreements and disagreements. But most of the time there are.
For top marks, you have to explain the cartoonists beliefs which are normally the overarching message
E.g. the Korean war was US fault/ Khrushchev lost the Cuban Missile Crisis

Question 3

Source question 2 - Message and purpose
Why was this source published? Explain your answer using the source and your own knowledge. (8)

Answer 3

This should be a cartoon
This is similar to what is the message but the difference is the active verb
Purpose and argument, context, content
Example purpose para:
This source was distributed in Korea in an attempt to persuade US troops in Korea, who were there as part of the UN force, that the war is pointless and the only reason for the conflict is to provide profits for US capitalists. The purpose is to lower the morale of US soldiers and potentially persuade them to desert and give up fighting. The cartoon is arguing that the main priority of US in the Korean war is to provide profits for American businesses, as shown by the US capitalist taking money out of the gun, and not actually to provide peace. That the US fight is immoral.

Question 4

Source question 2 - message
What is the message of this cartoon? Explain your answer using details of the source and your knowledge.

Answer 4

This will be a cartoon
Message, context, content
Message is largest para and should link to context
In this para you should have ‘cartoonist points of view’ - what does the cartoonist think

Question 5

Source question 3 - Evaluate a single source
(do you trust, are you surprised, how useful is this source)

Answer 5

These are all pretty similar. You will be given one source - often written.
You have to explain what the source is arguing and then evaluate it
Evaluate using COP (purpose is king tho)

Question 6

Source Question 4 - Compare and Evaluate
Example questions
Does Source F prove that Y is lying in Source Z?
Does Source D prove that Source C is wrong?
Study Sources X and Y. Does Source X make Source Y surprising?
Does Source B prove that Ho Chi Minh was right in Source A?

Answer 6

These questions have lots of different wording but fundamentally they all want the same thing. You have to compare the sources for agreements/ disagreements and then evaluate both sources.
The only difference is whether you evaluate the sources to explain agreement/ disagreement or whether you evaluate to state which is correct/ trustworthy
Para 1:
Compare disagreements
Para 2:
Compare agreements and then evaluate both sources using COP

Question 7

Source Question 5 - the 10 mark question

Answer 7

Each source gets it’s own paragraph - you start by explaining whether it agrees or disagrees with the statement.

Example para:
Source E disagrees with the statement and instead argues that the failure in Vietnam was down to poor US military tactics. Source E argues that it was down to ‘the mistaken policy of a graduated response’. He does not believe that it was necessary to win the support of the people and that the defeat happened due to military decisions in Washington.