How do I answer HAT questions which ask: what does a source reveal about the society that source was written in? (i.e. question 3 on the paper)

Question three on the paper is the question that many students find the trickiest in my experience of tutoring. This is because the question "what does this source reveal about society" is so wide ranging that it asks you to come up with completely original creative inferences. However, many students can find it helpful to approach these kinds of questions by using frameworks - for instance, before answering this question in an essay, you could try jotting down some key themes you would like to discuss under three main headings of: social, economic and political. For example, under the social category, does the source give any clues as to a dominant religion in the given society? Perhaps it reveals some telling aspects of attitudes to gender? Similarly under the economics category, perhaps the source mentions international trade and commerce? What does the source say about economic inequality and economic classes in that society? Once you get used to grappling with a framework and thinking of all the themes contained with the three headings, it can be much easier not only to think of how to answer the question, but also it can be easier to structure a very cogent response. If you took this approach on board, you could quite quickly nuance your answer to the question by adding even more themes. For example, themes like justice, morality/religion, international relations, art and many more. If you wrote down a quick mindmap to remind yourself of these key themes to consider when reading a source, it may make the process of "inferring" from the primary source a lot easier. Let's take an example, in question three of the 2014 HAT paper. At first glance the transcript of a beggars trial from 1558 may seem pretty daunting! However, keeping the themes of 'economic' and 'social' consideratins in mind, when we read that the beggar boy has "been put out six or seven times", it is much easier to consider that poverty may be the cause behind this. Taking this a little further, if someone has been caught begging more than six times by the authorities, that means that there are most likely written records being used in the courts, and perhaps that there is no welfare state or safety net available to help the poorest in the society who find themselves begging. Every source, no matter which historical period it comes from will have passages that are meant to prompt you to think of all the different possible social, economic and political consequences for the society that source came from. Examiners in the HAT are very keen on the answers being "source-led", a fancy term which essentially means that before explaining your inference you should quote the exact section of the source that led you to that inference. This close textual analysis, along with combining multiple themes in your answer will go a long way towards recieving the top band of the marking scheme.