Evaluate a historical source for a specific question
A historical source is useful for some questions and limited for others.
Begin with the source and the inquiry
A historical source is useful for some questions and limited for others. Start by identifying what the source is, who produced it, when and in what circumstances. Then read the task carefully. Source evaluation should explain how a feature affects what you can learn about that inquiry. Merely listing origin, purpose and content creates a checklist; the analytical work is connecting those features to a specific historical use.
Distinguish content from inference
Record what the source actually says or shows before interpreting it. A public speech establishes a speaker's presented position; it does not automatically establish private motives or audience agreement. An image may reveal how an event was represented while leaving its broader reception uncertain. Keep those distinctions visible. Claims about context should rely on relevant knowledge, not assumptions that all official sources conceal truth or all personal sources provide direct authenticity.
Try an official-speech example
Imagine evaluating a minister's speech promoting an economic reform. Its timing and intended audience may make it useful for understanding how the government justified the policy. Its promotional purpose limits what it can establish about implementation or lived outcomes. The limitation is tied to the question. For an inquiry into public messaging, the speech's persuasive character may be precisely what makes it valuable; describing it as biased and therefore useless misses that relationship.
Compare sources through the question
When two sources agree or differ, identify the exact claim involved and support the comparison with details from both. Consider whether they address the same period, group or issue. Apparent contradiction may reflect different positions or scopes. Use appropriate contextual knowledge to explain the difference where the task requires it. Avoid speculating about motives when the available evidence cannot support that inference. A cautious explanation can still be specific and analytical.
Practise with a new source type
Use school-selected material suited to your examination cohort, especially where paper formats differ. After answering, highlight every sentence explaining how a source feature affects usefulness or limitation. If most sentences simply name features, revise the missing connections. Then try a different source type or question to test transfer. The aim is to make evaluation responsive to the inquiry, rather than memorize a paragraph that could be attached to any speech, photograph or memoir.
Check the evidence trail before you finish
Choose one important sentence from your response and trace it back to the source or class material that supports it. Check whether you have stated an observation, inferred a cause or adopted another historian's interpretation. Those claims need different kinds of justification. Record precise references in research notes and separate quotations from your own paraphrases. Then ask what evidence could weaken the sentence and whether your answer acknowledges that possibility. This short audit improves the relationship between evidence and argument without requiring you to add more material simply for length. When accounts disagree, check whether they refer to the same period, population and outcome before deciding that one contradicts the other. This comparison can reveal a difference in scope that a simple reliability judgment would miss.
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Official references
This is an original practical guide from IBvia. The examples are illustrative; your subject guide, assessment year and school instructions determine the requirements.
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