How do you group and cross-reference the four sources in the enquiry to build an argument about the hypothesis?
AO2 source skills: grouping and cross-referencing the four enquiry sources by what they suggest about the hypothesis, building an argument rather than treating each source in turn.
An OCR A-Level History skills guide to grouping and cross-referencing sources in the AO2 enquiry. Explains why you should group the four sources by what they suggest about the hypothesis rather than answering source by source, how to cross-reference, and how to build to a judgement, with a worked example transferable across options.
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What this dot point is asking
The Unit 1 enquiry gives you four sources, and the top levels require you to group and cross-reference them to build an argument about the hypothesis, rather than working through Source 1, then 2, then 3, then 4. This page teaches the grouping and cross-referencing skill that turns four separate evaluations into a single, argued answer.
The answer
Why group rather than list
How to group
Read all four sources first and decide what each suggests about the hypothesis. Then group them: usually two or three on one side and one or two on the other. Your answer then has a clear structure, the case for the view, the case against, and a judgement, built from the grouped sources rather than a march through them in order.
Cross-referencing
Building to a judgement
With the sources grouped and cross-referenced and tested against context, you build to a judgement on how far, on balance, they support the view. The judgement follows from the weight of the grouped evidence, not from a tally of how many sources lean each way: a single well-provenanced source may outweigh two others. State the line of argument early and confirm it at the end.
Examples in context
A model answer reads as one argument with the four sources woven in, comparing and weighing them, rather than four paragraphs each beginning "Source A says..., Source B says...".
Try this
Q1. Explain why grouping the four enquiry sources is better than answering them one by one. [10 marks, AO2 style]
- What the marker wants. An AO2 answer explaining that grouping lets you build an argument about the balance of the evidence and cross-reference the sources, whereas answering source by source produces a list of evaluations with no overall argument.
Q2. What is cross-referencing in a source enquiry? [2 marks]
- Cue. Comparing sources directly to show where they agree and disagree, using provenance to explain why, so that they can be weighed against each other.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR H505 Y106 201820 marksUsing these four sources in their historical context, assess how far they support the view that Wolsey was responsible for his own downfall. [shown at the 20-mark cap; the enquiry is worth 30 in the full paper]Show worked answer →
The Section A enquiry (AO2), shown at the 20-mark cap (worth 30 in the full paper). The top level groups the sources by view and cross-references, rather than answering source by source.
Grouping. Group the sources into those blaming Wolsey (his failure over the divorce, his unpopularity) and those pointing to other causes (the king's will, factional enemies).
Cross-referencing. Show where sources agree or disagree, and use provenance to explain why, building an argument about the balance of the evidence.
Judgement. Set against context (the failure of the King's Great Matter, Wolsey's fall in 1529) and judge how far the sources support the view, on balance.
OCR H505 Y113 202020 marksUsing these four sources in their historical context, assess how far they support the view that the Attlee government's welfare reforms were widely welcomed. [shown at the 20-mark cap; the enquiry is worth 30 in the full paper]Show worked answer →
The Section A enquiry (AO2), shown at the 20-mark cap (worth 30 in the full paper). The top level groups and cross-references the sources.
Grouping. Group the sources into those welcoming the reforms (popular support for the NHS) and those critical (cost, opposition, professional resistance).
Cross-referencing. Compare the sources directly, using provenance to explain agreement and disagreement, and build an argument about the weight of the evidence.
Judgement. Set against context (the NHS in 1948, the 1945 mandate, austerity) and judge how far, on balance, the sources support the view.
Related dot points
- AO2 source skills: evaluating primary sources for their value to a stated enquiry, using content, provenance and contextual knowledge to reach a judgement rather than labelling sources reliable or biased.
An OCR A-Level History skills guide to evaluating primary sources for the AO2 enquiry. Explains how to judge a source's value for a stated enquiry using content, provenance and contextual knowledge, why bias is not a verdict, and how to reach a judgement on usefulness, with a worked example transferable to any Unit 1 option.
- AO2 source skills: applying the nature, origin and purpose framework to judge a source's value and limitations for a stated enquiry, turning provenance into evidence.
An OCR A-Level History skills guide to provenance for the AO2 enquiry. Explains the nature, origin and purpose framework, how each element affects a source's value for an enquiry, and how to turn provenance into evidence rather than a formula, with a worked example transferable across options.
- Source and interpretation skills: deploying contextual knowledge to test and evaluate sources (AO2) and interpretations (AO3), integrating it with the material rather than narrating around it.
An OCR A-Level History skills guide to using contextual knowledge in AO2 source and AO3 interpretation answers. Explains how own knowledge tests and evaluates sources and interpretations, how to integrate it rather than narrate, and how much to use, with a worked example transferable across options.
- AO3 interpretation skills: analysing a historian's argument, emphasis and use of evidence, and evaluating which interpretation is more convincing in the light of context, rather than assessing reliability.
An OCR A-Level History skills guide to analysing historical interpretations for AO3. Explains how to identify a historian's argument, emphasis and use of evidence, how interpretations differ, and how to judge which is more convincing in the light of context, with a worked example transferable to the Unit 3 interpretations essay.
- The assessment objectives: AO1 (analysis and judgement), AO2 (primary-source evaluation) and AO3 (interpretation evaluation), how they are weighted, where each is tested, and how to target the right skill.
An OCR A-Level History skills guide to the three assessment objectives. Explains AO1 (analysis and judgement), AO2 (primary-source evaluation) and AO3 (interpretation evaluation), how they are weighted across the units, where each is tested, and how to identify and target the right skill in each question.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR A Level History A (H505) specification — OCR (2015)