Prescribed Subject (Paper 1): Source-Based Study
Paper 1 tests the prescribed subject through four sources (A–D) and a sequence of questions: comprehension, source analysis, comparison, and a short essay that requires both sources and own knowledge. The sources are never decoration; every mark comes from what they say, who produced them, and why.
Reading provenance as evidence
For any source, establish origin (author, date, place), purpose (persuade, record, justify, inform), audience, and content. Value and limitation must be tied to the specific inquiry: a 1938 British newspaper editorial is valuable for official-minded British opinion on Munich, but limited for Czech or German decision-making. A statistic can be valuable for scale but limited by collection bias.
Worked example
Question: 'With reference to origin, purpose and content, assess the value and limitations of Source A for a historian studying appeasement.' Source A is a September 1938 editorial in a British national newspaper praising the Munich Agreement as 'peace with honour'. Reasoning: origin/date make it evidence of contemporary British press framing, not of cabinet deliberation; purpose-to persuade readers-explains the selective language; content gives a justificatory vocabulary but omits Czech sovereignty and Hitler's earlier demands. Value: it shows how appeasement was sold to a British public. Limitation: no access to policy-making, no German or Czech perspective, and likely editorial alignment. The trap is writing 'biased, therefore useless'; bias is itself evidence when identified.
Traps
Paraphrasing sources instead of analysing them; calling a source 'primary' as if that were a value judgement; ignoring purpose; failing to compare sources explicitly in comparison questions; and in the essay question, replacing source evidence with general knowledge. Use short quotations or precise references, then explain what they prove.