Reliability Flashcards
What are the 5 P’s ?
. Primary or secondary source
. Provenance ( the origin)
. Purpose ( aim audience)
. Perspective (what is the context of the writer in relation to the text)
. (P) corroboration ( backing it up with another source)
What is the usefulness equation?
Perspective + Reliability = usefulness
what can you use to work out perspective?
Who What When Where Why
What is the origin of the source?
Do you recognise the name?
Was the maker a participant?
Who made the source?
What was his or her role? was the maker an expert?
Due to his or her position, is bias likely?
Is the bias likely to be deliberate or unintentional?
When and where was it made
Was it made at the time of, or after the event?
If there is a delay, how is it significant?
Is the publisher important for indicating bias or not?
What is the nature of the source?
is it primary or secondary
What is the source?
What kind is the source- letter, cartoon, statistical data ect.?
What is the content of the source?
What is the intentional content- that which the maker meant to include?
What is unwitting, or unintentional, content of the source?
What is the point of view of the maker of the source?
Is the context bias?
Is the bias intentional?
For whom was the source made for?
was it privet- diary act.
was it meant for publication? how do you know?
If so, was it for an individual, a small group of experts or a wide audience?
Why was it made?
What was the purpose or motive? to convince, inform, condemn, give a balanced view act.
how does the format of the source indicate purpose and perhaps bias?
How is it done? What language or images are used? humorous extravagant emotive logical matter-of-fact balanced or descriptive.
What is the perspective of the source?
Using your knowledge of who made the source and why , consider the position or perspective of the source. Does it represent a particular countries position? A class position?A political party's position? How do you know? Consider the use of emotive language; is the information presented one-sided?
Is the source reliable?
Is the source complete or incomplete?
In what way is the source limited? Does it lack clarity, detail, understanding? Is it from a narrow point of view?
In what way is it bias? Is it propaganda or not ?
do other sources contradict it?
For what is the source reliable? unreliable?
Is the source useful?
What does the source tell you? How can you use what the source tells you to explain some aspect of the past?
REMEMBER! Usefulness is different from reliability and depends on reliability. Reliability has to be worked out first.
