Paper 3 - Question Techniques

Question 1

How do you answer the 20-mark sources question?

Answer 1

• Your answer must focus on the sources and use them to come to a judgement, not your opinion
• The structure should be one paragraph per source and a conclusion.
• What view does the source have about the question? This should be your first sentence of your paragraph.
• Summarise the message of the source. You must show that you understand what the source
  is about and its message, even if it is not made explicitly clear.
• You must then evaluate the source to make a judgement about how convincing it is. To
  make judgments on the source, refer to:
• Your own knowledge
• The author
• The purpose
• Make a judgement about how far you trust the source, as well as how far it convinces you
  about the statement.
• Once you have completed a paragraph for each source, write a conclusion that makes a
  judgement about how convincing the sources are overall.

Question 2

How do you answer the 10-mark source question?

Answer 2

• Write two paragraphs, one on each source, and then come to a conclusion about which is more useful. Within each
  paragraph, do the following:
• Pick out some details about what the source says and briefly show how they fit in with your wider knowledge.
• Move beyond what the source says (at face value) and try to explain what you can tell or
  infer from the source’s content.
• REMEMBER: Sources are ALWAYS useful.
• In your conclusion, focus on usefulness for what. It could be that one source is very useful for one aspect, and the other source is very useful for another issue