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Paper 2 Source Skills. Candidates’ weaknesses (according to examiners’ reports). Not supporting your answers with source detail Simply reproducing knowledge without reference to the question or source !
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Candidates’ weaknesses (according to examiners’ reports) • Not supporting your answers with source detail • Simply reproducing knowledge without reference to the question or source! • Very generalised knowledge used as examples. E.g. ‘from my own knowledge many people were very poor at this time’!
Candidates’ weaknesses (according to examiners’ reports) • Too many descriptions of the source • Not commenting on the language and tone of the source • Not using your knowledge to evaluate the source
However, this is an easy paper to gain marks. All you need to do is focus on the question and use the sources with some supporting knowledge.
Question 1: What is the message of this cartoon? Use details of the cartoon and your knowledge to explain your answer • Good answers start with the language of the question: ‘The message of the cartoon is…..’ • Don’t get muddled with the purpose of the cartoon. • Don’t get distracted by tiny, irrelevant details details, try and get an overall impression of the general message. • Inference is important here. What can you work out from looking at the picture?
Question 1: Key Hints • Deal with the overall message first, • Follow with supporting detail from the cartoon • Finally add some knowledge -which supports your interpretation – and is linked to message of the cartoon not just put in for the sake of it! – • 1-2 lines of own knowledge are sufficient for question 1.
Questions 2-5:Evaluation • Types of questions which may be asked: • Do you trust this source? • How true is this source? • Why was this source published? • Are you surprised this source appeared? Use details of source and your own knowledge…
Questions 2-5: Evaluation • There are many different questions possible here, but all of them require you to evaluate sources. • It is vital that you are flexible in your approach to evaluation – there are many ways to evaluate you must chose the most appropriate For Example: • Provenance, where the source comes from • Purpose, why it was produced • Own knowledge can also be a key evaluation tool – comparing specific content to specific own knowledge and quite easy to do. Ask yourself, does this match up with what I know/other sources tell me? • Cross-referencing other sources is an underused evaluation technique – you can refer to other sources on the paper even if they are not specified in that question. • Language and tone is also a possibility, is the language exaggerated for example?
BIAS • Too many candidates rubbish sources – dismissing them as biased (or more usually bias or baist!!!) – AVOID THIS TERM IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, INSTEAD USE ONE-SIDED, this might then lead you to consider different view points. • For Example, in your mock exam far too many candidates dismissed the source because it was written by an American and so ‘biased’. • The language of the source was much more revealing and should have been cross-referenced and linked to own knowledge.
Question 2-5 Utility • How useful is this source? Use details of source and your own knowledge… • This should involve two parts: • How the source is useful. • How the source is not useful (use the word “limited”). • First section – explain how it is useful: • What does it tell you? • Is there any own knowledge about the Provenance that explains why it is useful? (REMEMBER:even if it is one-sided it can be useful for telling us about different view points and attitudes)
Question 2-5 Utility • Second section – explain how it is limited: • What does it not tell you – that you know from your own knowledge? • Is there any own knowledge about the Provenance that explains why it is not useful? • Own knowledge should be limited to a few sentences (icing on cake – not the main part of the answer
Questions 2-5:Explain • Why do these sources give different views? Why was this source published? Why was this poster issued by the government? • Focus on the purpose of the sources. • Be certain to explain, one reason, another reason etc… • Link carefully to what you know about the event shown
Question 6: How far do the sources support this statement? (Use the sources and your own knowledge) • You should deal with both sides of a Yes / No debate. • 12 marks are available; 10 of these are for the two sides of the argument and 3 for evaluation of sources – up to a maximum of 12. • Answers must be driven by sources. • You should use most of the sources but you don’t have to refer to them all. • You must make it clear which sources they are referring to (use the letter). • You must link sources explicitly back to the statement in the question.
Question 6: How far do the sources support this statement? (Use the sources and your own knowledge) • Direct references to specific points in sources are a key element (short quotations). • Evaluation (including contextual knowledge) could be saved for the conclusion – deciding which sources are more valuable and why – reaching a judgement. • Specific examples from Own Knowledge should be used to evaluate content or provenance. • Balanced answers that provide some evaluation and reach a judgement achieve top Level 4 (11-12 marks).
Some suggestions…. • There are two basic ways of doing this: • Go through source by source showing how each source supports / does not support the statement. (Not very sophisticated but will do if running out of time/struggle with this question Or better to… • Divide the sources into two groups – those for and against – but content from the sources must be used.
