A source’s purpose is why it was made, and its audience is who it was made for. Both change what the source can fairly be used to show.
This skill appears whenever a question asks how useful or reliable a source is. It follows from identifying explicit claims in the wider evidence and source interpretation module.
How does purpose change what a source shows?
Ask these four questions in order.
- What type of source is this? A poster, minutes, a diary and a newspaper report are made for different reasons.
- Who made it, and who was meant to see it?
- What was it trying to do? Inform, persuade, record, or something else.
- For my question, what does that make it good evidence of?
The last step is the one that earns credit. A source is never “good” or “bad” in general. It is stronger or weaker evidence for a particular question.
Worked example
The question is: How successful was the new market hall at Tanjung Delima? Both sources below are invented for teaching.
Source C (invented extract): Poster issued by the Town Council, 1925. “Come and see the finest market hall in the district. Opening day, Saturday. All traders welcome.”
Source D (invented extract): Private letter from a trader to her sister, 1925. “The hall is smart, but my stall is so small that customers cannot stand beside it. I am thinking of going back to the roadside.”
Source C.
- Type: public poster. Maker: the council. Audience: townspeople and traders.
- Purpose: to attract people to the opening and present the hall favourably.
- Use for this question: weak evidence that the hall was successful, because praise is part of the poster’s job. Good evidence of how the council wished the hall to be seen, and that an opening day was planned.
Source D.
- Type: private letter. Maker: a trader. Audience: a family member.
- Purpose: to share her news and feelings with someone she trusts.
- Use for this question: useful evidence of one trader’s experience, with little reason to polish it for the public. Limited, because it is one person at one moment.
Judgement: neither source settles how successful the hall was. Source D gives a more candid view of a single stall. Source C shows how the council presented the hall. A fuller answer would look for more evidence.
The mistake to watch for
Mistaken answer: “Source C is biased because it is a council poster, so it is useless.”
This stops at a label. “Useless” is also wrong: the poster is good evidence that the council planned an opening day and wanted the hall seen as a success.
Correction: “Source C is a council poster meant to attract visitors, so its praise tells us how the council wanted the hall to be seen. It cannot show how well the hall worked for traders.”
Check yourself
1. A school notice from 1930, invented for this exercise, says: “Pupils will assemble at 7.30. Late pupils will be sent home.” Name its purpose and audience.
Show answer
Purpose: to instruct and set a rule. Audience: pupils, and probably their parents. The notice is good evidence of the school’s expectations. It does not show whether pupils actually arrived on time.
2. Why might a private letter be more candid than a poster, and does that make it more accurate?
Show answer
The writer expects a trusted reader, so there is less pressure to impress. More candid is not the same as more accurate: the writer may still be mistaken, upset or one-sided.
3. Rewrite “The poster is biased” as a judgement tied to a question about how the opening day was received.
Show answer
“The poster was designed to attract people, so it is not reliable on how the opening day was received, though it shows the council planned the event and invited traders.”
Where this leads next
With purpose and audience clear, you can compare two sources fairly in comparing two sources. Practise the whole chain in the integrated practice set.
Naming a purpose is the easy half. In online one-to-one History tuition, a teacher can drill the second half with you: turning that purpose into a judgement about the question.