Source Analysis practice questions.

An NGO report by Amnesty International documents human rights abuses in a conflict zone. Which statement best balances its value and limitation?

• Valuable because NGOs are always neutral; limited because it is secondary
• Valuable for first-hand testimony and expertise; limited as its advocacy may bias case selection
• Valuable only because it is recent; limited because NGOs lack access to any official government data
• Valuable because it is long; limited because statistics can never be verified

Answer: Valuable for first-hand testimony and expertise; limited as its advocacy may bias case selection

Advocacy NGOs offer detailed field research and witness testimony, but their campaigning purpose can influence which cases are highlighted, so findings should be corroborated.

Which of the following is checked by 'corroboration' when working with sources?

• Whether the author is famous
• Whether the source uses emotive language
• Whether other sources support the same claim
• Whether the source is the most recent one available

Answer: Whether other sources support the same claim

Corroboration means cross-checking a claim against independent sources; agreement between sources with different origins and purposes strengthens reliability.

A minister's speech contains the sentence: 'Our border policy is working, and arrivals fell by 32% last year according to the national statistics office.' Which part of the sentence is the claim rather than the evidence?

• That the border policy is working
• That arrivals fell by 32% last year
• That the figure comes from the statistics office
• That the policy was introduced by the minister

Answer: That the border policy is working

The fall in arrivals is a measurable statement; that the policy caused it, and that this counts as working, is the interpretation laid on top. The usual error is to treat a cited figure as proof of the conclusion attached to it, when the figure is consistent with several explanations.

Source A, a government ministry, reports 12,000 people displaced by fighting; Source B, an NGO working in the area, reports 40,000. Which approach to the disagreement is strongest in a source-based answer?

• Take the higher figure, because NGOs are independent of governments
• Account for how each producer collected and counted its figures
• Take the lower figure, because ministries hold the official records
• Set both aside, because sources that disagree cannot be used

Answer: Account for how each producer collected and counted its figures

A discrepancy is itself evidence: access, counting method and incentive differ between a ministry and a field NGO, and saying so is analysis. Students commonly pick a winner by reputation, which rewards the source they trust rather than the one whose method fits the question.

Answering a question on what Source B suggests about a political issue, a student writes: 'Source B is a photograph of a refugee camp with rows of white tents.' Why does this sentence earn no credit?

• It names a photograph, and images are not assessed in this paper
• It omits the photographer's name, without which a source is unusable
• It restates the content without saying what the source shows
• It draws on a source instead of the candidate's own knowledge

Answer: It restates the content without saying what the source shows

Listing what is visible is description; saying what the visible thing establishes about the political issue is analysis, and only the second is marked. The error is easy to miss because the sentence is accurate — accuracy is not the same as relevance.

A leaked internal memo circulates online with no author's name and no date. Identify the most precise limitation this creates for its use as evidence.

• Leaked material is unlawful to obtain and so cannot be cited
• Anonymous documents are fabrications and carry no evidential value
• An internal memo records procedure, so it cannot reveal any motive
• Its claims cannot be placed against the events they describe

Answer: Its claims cannot be placed against the events they describe

Without a date the memo cannot be located in the sequence of events, so it cannot show what was known when — the question most leaked documents are used to answer. The common overstatement is to declare an anonymous source worthless; the honest move is to name precisely which questions it can no longer settle.