A-Level History — Breadth, Depth & Enquiry

What AO2 requires

• Analyse and evaluate primary source material to judge its value for a specific enquiry - AQA typically gives three sources to assess in relation to a stated question.

Analysing content

• What does the source say/argue? Select relevant detail and use your own knowledge to explain, support, challenge and contextualise it.

Evaluating provenance

• Value comes from provenance + content + context: the source's nature, origin and purpose (who, when, why, audience), tone, and typicality - and how these affect its value for the enquiry.
• A source's bias often makes it more valuable as evidence of a viewpoint - avoid "it's biased so it's useless".

Reaching a judgement

• For each source, reach a judgement on its value for the specific enquiry, using content and provenance together, supported by contextual knowledge. Compare the three where relevant.

Structure

• Deal with each source in turn: content to provenance to own knowledge to a judgement on value.

Judge each source's value for the specific enquiry using content + provenance + own knowledge - the provenance drives the evaluation, not a generic bias comment.

Diagram