A-Level History — Period Study & Enquiry

What AO2 requires

• Analyse and evaluate primary sources to reach a judgement on their use/value for an enquiry - OCR's depth study uses source analysis to answer "how far do the sources support..." questions.

Analysing content

• What does each source say/argue? Select relevant detail and deploy own knowledge to support, challenge and contextualise it.

Evaluating provenance

• Judge value through the source's nature, origin and purpose (who, when, why, audience), tone and typicality - and how these affect reliability and utility for the specific enquiry. Bias can increase a source's value as evidence of viewpoint.

Cross-referencing

• Weigh the sources against each other and against your own knowledge to reach an overall judgement on the enquiry.

Structure

• Group sources by what they suggest; evaluate content + provenance; reach a supported judgement.

Evaluate sources' value for the specific enquiry using content + provenance + own knowledge, cross-referencing them to reach a judgement - not generic reliability comments.

Diagram