A comparison question asks you to set two sources side by side and say what the difference tells you. The skill is explicit provenance: say who made each source, when, for whom and why, then use that to explain agreement and difference.
This lesson follows using evidence about a defined change and belongs to the Germany depth-study pathway.
What does explicit provenance mean?
Write each element in your answer, not only in your head:
- Author: who made it and from what position.
- Date: how close to the events.
- Audience: who it was meant for.
- Form: letter, diary, report, poster, speech.
- Purpose: what the author wanted the audience to think or do.
The comparison pattern
- Name the question you are using the sources for.
- State one point of agreement and one difference.
- Explain the difference using provenance.
- Say what each source cannot show.
- Give a short judgement.
Worked example
Both extracts are invented for practice. They are not real documents.
Source A (invented practice extract). Report from a local official to a regional office, 1934: “The new youth evenings are well attended. Parents have raised no concerns.”
Source B (invented practice extract). Diary entry of a parent, 1934: “My son goes to the youth evening because he is told to. At home we speak of it as little as we can.”
Question: How far do the sources agree about reactions to the youth evenings?
Step 1: Agreement. Both say that the youth evenings took place and that the son, or young people, attended.
Step 2: Difference. Source A says parents raised no concerns. Source B shows a parent who has concerns but avoids talking about them.
Step 3: Provenance explains the difference. Source A is an official report to a superior, so the author has a reason to present success. Source B is a private diary, written for the writer alone, so the author has little reason to shape it for others.
Step 4: Limits. Source A does not say how the official learned of parents’ views. Source B is one parent and cannot speak for others. Notice that B does not contradict A: a parent may have concerns and not report them to an official.
Step 5: Judgement. For the question of reactions, B gives closer evidence about private attitudes, and A gives evidence about what was reported officially. Together they suggest that official reports and private feelings can differ.
The mistake to watch for
Mistaken answer: “Source A is unreliable because it is an official report, and Source B is reliable because it is a diary.”
This sorts sources by type instead of by use. The correction is to say that each is useful for a different part of the question and to explain why, using purpose and audience.
Check yourself
1. Give the provenance of Source B in one sentence.
Show answer
A private diary entry from 1934 written by a parent for themselves, about the experience of a son attending a youth evening.
2. Why does the claim “parents raised no concerns” in Source A not contradict Source B?
Show answer
A parent can hold a concern and not voice it to an official. Source A reports what was raised, not what was felt. The sources describe different things.
3. Write the first sentence of a judgement on how far Source A is useful for studying private opinion.
Show answer
“Source A is of limited use for private opinion, because it is an official report to a superior and records only concerns that were reported, but it is useful for showing what officials chose to communicate.”
Where this leads next
Next, write a bounded explanation without speculative claims about a public figure, where you use sources safely in a written answer. For wider practice, use the integrated set.
Comparison is a skill that grows when someone reads your sentences and asks “how do you know?” Our online one-to-one History tuition can do that on your own practice answers.