Advantages and Disadvantages of Sources

Advantages and Disadvantages of Sources

Remember there are 4 types of historical source:

Physical, Visual, Oral and Written.

Each of them have certain advantages and disadvantages

Written Evidence

• Advantages- can be very accurate (textbooks)

  Easy to read and accessible (libraries)

  Can be either a primary or secondary source

• Disadvantages- Can be biased (sports report)

  •Difficult to translate if its in a language no one speaks anymore (Egyptian hieroglyphics)

  •Easily destroyed, lost or damaged

Physical Evidence

• –Advantages:

  •Accurate

  •From the time

  •A lot of information can be found from one object

• –Disadvantages

  •Expensive to find and very difficult to find

  •Can be damaged

  •Not accessible to the public

Visual Evidence

• –Advantages:

  •Give us a picture of what the past looked like

• Disadvantages

  •can try make someone look better

  •Isn’t a full picture of an event

  •Can be misinterpreted

  •Limited

Oral Evidence

• –Advantages

  •Entertaining

  •Easy to listen to

• –Disadvantages

  •Relies on memory

  •Can be forgotten

  •Details may change (broken telephone)

  •Teller may try to make themselves look better

  •Myth and legends

Poll

Which do you think is the most unreliable source of history?

• Physical

• Visual

• Oral

• Written