How do you answer a GCSE history exam question on the ‘usefulness’ of sources?

This question wants you to use both provenance and your own knowledge to assess the contents of sources. When bringing in your own knowledge, try to be as specific as you would be in any other essay. If the question were around a specific political event, what do you know about the climate/individuals involved/other recent events/the impact or consequences? Use this knowledge to both understand and question the source.In terms of provenance, consider how the nature (what type of source is it?), origin (who wrote it? when?) and/or purpose (why was it written?) explain its contents and impact its usefulness. This may reveal bias but go beyond this. Try to think of ways in which a biased source is useful. It is important to remember to judge your source upon ‘usefulness’. Limitations of sources should be based around what we would expect from a source’s provenance rather than bias or what it doesn’t say. A way to do this is to approach the question as the ‘historian studying’ whatever historical focus. What would you want to know? How does the source meet these expectations in line with its provenance? However, you can still consider how sources may be misleading and if you’re asked about two sources in one question, you can sum up the ways in which they would be useful (or limited) together.