When assessing source value, how do I balance contextual information with source relevance and general analysis?

Exam questions will often ask you to assess the usefulness of a source(s) to a historian or to consider how convincing or relevant certain sources are. Whilst it is important to demonstrate your source analysis skills, it is also important to show contextual awareness and to demonstrate your own knowledge of the topic. Before analysing the source, you can include any relevant background information you might have surrounding the time it was produced or motivation behind its production, provided this is not too long and doesn’t become the essence of your answer. It is important to keep the question you are being asked in mind the entire time you are writing your response, and to only include contextual information which is relevant to your answer. For example, if you are being asked what makes industry data during one of Stalin’s Five-Year-Plans relevant to a historian of the period, acknowledging its importance in terms of propaganda, the life of workers’ and Russia’s economic development is appropriate, however it is not necessary to include detailed information on the plans or an in-depth explanation of why these results were achieved. General analysis should always include basic observations such as source type, who produced it, when/where and how it was produced etc. However, it is also important to acknowledge why these observations are relevant, which is where your contextual knowledge should come in. After practicing these types of questions for a while, combining and balancing general analysis with contextual information should come naturally.