Question 3

Mr H · Question 3

3. Study Source D and Source E

How useful are these Sources in helping you to understand what actions the US government has taken as part of the War on Terror?

(10)

Links:
Source D
Source E

Mr H

Reliability/Usefulness/Value of Sources

You are almost guaranteed to see a question of this type on your exam
paper, so be prepared. The examiner wants you to recognise that some sources have more value to historians than others, some are more reliable than others, and some are more useful than others.

Reliability/Usefulness/value questions usually look something like this:

What is the value of Source A for an historian trying to find out about……..

How useful is Source B for an historian enquiring into ………

1) The first thing to ask of the source is, is it reliable? To do this think
about:
! who wrote it?
! when was it written?
! why was it written?

2) Then you should be able to identify whether or not the source is biased. If you believe it is biased you must be able to explain why you believe this.

3) You should then be able to make a judgement as to the source’s
reliability. Whether or not a source is biased affects its reliability. The
more biased the source the less reliable it is, BUT sources are never completely reliable or unreliable.

4) The second thing to ask of the source is, is it useful or valuable to an historian? Remember just because a source is not very reliable does not mean it is not useful or of value to a historian.
e.g. A source written by a male doctor that gives an unfavourable
view of a female doctor may be biased, and yet be useful in telling
an historian about male attitudes towards female doctors at that
time.

5) Usefulness/Value of sources can only be decided when you know
what the historian wants to use the source for. Once you know the
question being asked you need to make two lists:
What are the uses of this source to answer the question?
What are the problems of using this source to answer
that question?

6) Finally once you have discussed all of the above in your answer, you
need to make a final judgement. Sum up how useful or valuable you
think the source is.

Reliable - can be trusted or made use of at face value.
Biased - gives a one-sided point of view.
Useful - can be used by an historian to answer a given question.
Valuable - can be used by an historian to answer a given question.

Mr H

You now have the information that you require to write out a
balanced answer as to how useful the sources are.

You would need to write both sides of the argument but then sum up your judgement as to their usefulness at the end.

• A source is never completely useful or useless.
• Biased, unreliable sources can still be useful.
• Usefulness or value can only be judged when you know the
question you need to answer with it.
• Make sure your answer is relevant. Keep referring back to the
question.
• The planning of your answer (e.g. the table) is very important to
a good answer, nevertheless don’t waste too much time.
• It is very likely that you will be asked to compare the
usefulness(utility) or value of sources, in which case you would
go through this process for each one and state a preference as to
which is more useful.