Analysing and Evaluating in History

When I'm analysing a historical source, I will include:

• Whether it is reliable or not

• If it is biased

• Where it comes from

• If it is useful in answering the question

If the question tells me to include the motive of the source, I must mention:

• Its point of view

• Where it came from

• How it answers the question

• Why it was created

The following sentence demonstrates analysis of which features of evidence?

"Dr Zahi Hawass represents a popular Egyptian perspective in his quest to have the Rosetta Stone returned to Egypt"

• Perspective, Motive

• Context, Audience

• Audience, Origin

• Reliability, Usefulness

If the question tells me to analyse the origin of the source, I must mention:

• Who it is aimed at

• Why it was created

• Where it came from and who created it

• The implicit and explicit meanings

Some of the features of evidence are:

• Comprehension, identification and evaluation

• Audience, motive, perspective and reliability

• Origin, context, explicit and implicit meanings

• Corroboration and bias

“(source) provides evidence of…”

This is an example of:

• Evaluating usefulness

• Analysing context

• Evaluating reliability

• Analysing perspective

“The authoritative nature of this source is confirmed by the use of objective, expert language and evidence to justify the author-researchers’ conclusions”

This is an example of:

• Analysing audience

• Corroboration

• Analysing motive

• Evaluating reliability

“As an article conveying the perspectives of (number of academics etc.), the source is mostly reliable”.

This example uses what to make a judgement about reliability?

• Corroboration

• Comprehension

• Representativeness

• Bias

“(source) provides insight into…”

I would use this statement to mention:

• audience

• perspective

• implicit meaning

• usefulness

"He argues strongly in a television interview in Source E that it is an “icon of our Egyptian identity and therefore…should not be outside Egypt”, suggesting that Britain has a responsibility to return antiquities that were appropriated to Britain during the imperial era."

The highlighted sections show:

• Origin and context

• Explicit and implicit meanings

• Reliability and usefulness

• Perspective and motive