Skills practice questions.

When assessing the 'value' of a private diary written at the time of events, which factor most increases its value to a historian?

• Written at the time, revealing genuine private views
• It was published decades later for a wide audience
• It contains only official government statistics
• It was written by someone with no connection to the events

Answer: Written at the time, revealing genuine private views

A contemporaneous private diary is valuable because it captures the author's honest, unfiltered thoughts at the moment of events, without the distortion of hindsight or an intention to persuade a public audience.

A limitation of a political propaganda poster as historical evidence is that it:

• Presents a one-sided, persuasive message
• Is always anonymous and undated
• Cannot reveal anything about a regime's aims
• Is never produced by governments

Answer: Presents a one-sided, persuasive message

Propaganda is designed to persuade, so it selectively presents information and is inherently biased. However, this same feature makes it valuable for revealing the aims, values and messaging a regime wanted to project.

A source written by a participant shortly after an event is best described as

• a secondary source
• a primary source
• a historiographical source
• a tertiary source

Answer: a primary source

Primary sources originate from the time/participants under study; secondary sources are later interpretations by historians.

Which of the following is best classified as a secondary source?

• a diary kept during the events
• a treaty signed at the time by governments
• a textbook chapter analysing events
• a photograph taken at the scene

Answer: a textbook chapter analysing events

Secondary sources are later interpretations produced by others studying the period, not evidence created at the time.

The command term 'compare and contrast' requires you to

• describe only the similarities
• give a separate account of each event with no links
• discuss both similarities and differences together
• decide which subject was more important

Answer: discuss both similarities and differences together

A running comparison that addresses similarities and differences together is stronger than two isolated descriptions.

In OPCVL source evaluation, identify what the 'O' stands for.

• Objectivity
• Origin
• Outcome
• Opinion

Answer: Origin

In OPCVL, 'O' is Origin (who produced the source, when and where), from which value and limitation are then deduced.