Source a document the way a reader scores it
Three steps, the way the exam actually works: work through the lab, write down your own observations, then answer a 6-point free response. What you recorded goes to the grader with your writing, so a conclusion that does not follow from your own evidence will cost you the point — exactly as it would with a real reader.
Run the investigation
- 1Choose one document from the lab and read it closely before revealing anything.
- 2Draft your own analysis of all four sourcing categories — historical situation, intended audience, point of view, and purpose — in the lab.
- 3Reveal the lab’s analysis and compare it with yours.
- 4Record your own final judgement for each category below, in a phrase rather than a sentence.
Booting the lab…
Record what you found
This is your reading of the source, not ours. The grader sees them, so your conclusions have to follow from what you actually recorded.
| Document you analyzed | |
|---|---|
| Historical situation | |
| Intended audience | |
| Point of view | |
| Purpose |
Answer the free response
Using the document you analyzed: (a) State its historical situation, and explain the difference between describing the historical situation and merely summarizing the document’s content. (b) Explain how the author’s point of view and intended audience together shape what the document does and does not say. Give one specific thing the document would likely have said differently to a different audience. (c) Explain what this source is reliable evidence FOR and what it is poor evidence for. Be precise: a biased source is not a useless source. (d) A document-based question asks you to earn the sourcing point using this document. Write the sentence you would put in your essay, and explain what makes it earn the point rather than just restating the author and date.
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