Paper 1: Source Analysis and Evaluation - How the Source Paper Is Built
This domain is Paper 1: a one-hour source paper built around one prescribed subject (for example 'The move to global war' or 'Rights and protest'). You answer five structured questions on four or five short sources, totalling 24 marks and 30% of the SL grade. Marks come from precision about what a source says and does - not from dumping context.
The question ladder
- Q1a (3) and Q1b (2) test comprehension: extract stated points, quote a few words as anchors, do not infer.
- Q2 (4) asks for the value and limitations of one source with reference to its origin, purpose and content.
- Q3 (6) asks you to compare and contrast two sources. Address content and provenance, and make the comparison explicit ('Both…', 'Whereas Source C…').
- Q4 (9) is a mini-essay: sources as evidence plus your own knowledge, ending in a judgement.
Worked example
Q2 on a 1938 Nazi poster urging Germans to buy German goods. Value: its origin in the Reich Propaganda Office shows the regime's intended message; its content shows how autarky was sold as national duty. Limitation: it is prescriptive, not descriptive - it reveals what the regime wanted people to think, not what they thought, and offers no sales data. Pairing a specific use with a specific limit is what earns the top band.
Traps
- Summarising content when asked about value: always link content to what a historian could do with it.
- 'It is biased' is not a limitation unless you name what it stops you knowing.
- Answering Q3 source-by-source instead of point-by-point.