How do I approach the source question to achieve a high level answer?

A good way to approach a source question (for AQA, for example) in order to achieve a high level answer is focusing on content and argument, tone and emphasis and provenance. In your essay you will have a paragraph on each and will use these three things to guide your analysis. You should start by reading the question and highlighting the key focus: 'Assess the value of the source to a historian studying ...(?)'. Make a quick mind map of all the pieces of evidence you could use off the top of your head about this particular focus.Then you should read the source through at least once. Once you have read through it, read through it again whilst highlighting / identifying one or two significant pieces of the content/ argument and identify a piece of evidence that supports or challenges it. When reading you also should identify a tone or an emphasis on a certain phrase; is this surprising or expected given the context of the time and the evidence you know? Next, look at when, where, what, who, hows and see if these add limitations or value to a historian studying the focus of the question.