Sources: How do I analyse and understand a source?

The evaluation and critique of sources is part of the foundation of historical understanding, as a result, sources are extensively used throughout the GCSE and A Level programmes. At GCSE level, source papers aim to throw a different challenge at participants. Whilst essay papers test rote-learning, the source paper examines a candidate’s ability to analyse and evaluate new information and interpretations in a historical context, which in turns makes this paper increasingly challenging. Consequently, teaching source assessment requires an alternative approach which this short answer will aim to explain.
When addressing sources, remember this in the only time that you want to be in a TRAPP. That is the acronym for the skills needed to understand a source, in order to be able to critique and analyse it.
TimeRelevanceAccuracyProvenance Purpose
Acronyms are an excellent memory technique for students, as even under exam pressure when you memory can often fail you, it is very difficult to forget a simple acronym. Students must look at the time when a source is published to better understand its position and purpose. The relevance, refers to whether the source answers the question at hand, or in fact brings up new questions about the relevant topic. The accuracy refers to the reliability and truthfulness of a source, looking at biased language, and comparing facts in the source with your own knowledge of the topic. While the provenance is the origin of the source, which will aid in determining its reliability, as it looks at the author of the source and gauges their authority as a writer/ artist on the topic and what bias they have. While finally the purpose of a source is the reason this information exists, it it designed to sell, inform, persuade, warn or entertain? Is it clearly propaganda with an agenda? And who is the primary audience of this source. By going through TRAPP, GCSE students can begin to use, particularly under pressure, critical skills for source understanding. Once these have been established, analysis can then flow, from a student’s own knowledge of the subject and the information gained from TRAPP. Furthermore, source comparison and contrast is not only important in assessing the usefulness of sources, but is often explicitly asked by exam boards. Students must remember that after TRAPP comparing the sources of differing provenance, accuracy and purpose will enhance their answers. To compare sources, students who receive the highest grade boundary use a theme based paragraph structure ensuring that if you are comparing two sources for example, they are both mentioned in every paragraph, rather than having a separate paragraph for each source, as this does not lend to comparative thinking. Thus providing a concise method of answering source questions, of a comparative nature, while teaching a key memory technique to aid student’s unpacking of a source.