How do you use the nature, origin and purpose of a source to judge its value for an enquiry?
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.
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What this dot point is asking
The heart of the AO2 enquiry is provenance, summed up as nature, origin and purpose. This page teaches the framework and, more importantly, how to use it to judge a source's value for a stated enquiry, turning provenance into evidence rather than reciting it as a formula. It is the single most powerful tool for lifting an enquiry answer into the top levels.
The answer
The three elements
Nature: what kind of source
The nature of a source affects its value: a private letter is valuable for candid opinion, an official record for administrative fact, a speech for public persuasion, a memoir for retrospective reflection (with the risk of hindsight). Identifying the nature precisely tells you what kind of evidence you are dealing with and what it can reliably reveal.
Origin and purpose: who and why
Turning provenance into evidence
The move that earns top marks is to use provenance to say what the source is valuable for, rather than to dismiss it. A hostile source is valuable for revealing hostility; a self-justifying source is valuable for the case its author wished to make. By tying nature, origin and purpose to the enquiry, you turn every source, including the most one-sided, into usable evidence.
Examples in context
A model answer never recites provenance for its own sake: it always finishes the thought with "and so the source is valuable for...", linking nature, origin and purpose to the enquiry.
Try this
Q1. Explain how the purpose of a propaganda poster affects its value as evidence. [10 marks, AO2 style]
- What the marker wants. An AO2 answer showing that a poster's purpose, to persuade or project a message, makes it valuable evidence of what a regime wished people to believe, even though it is not reliable as a record of fact, with value judged for the specific enquiry.
Q2. What are the three elements of provenance? [2 marks]
- Cue. Nature (what kind of source it is), origin (who produced it, when and where), and purpose (why it was produced).
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 Y219 201920 marksUsing these four sources in their historical context, assess how far they support the view that the Provisional Government was doomed to fail in 1917. [shown at the 20-mark cap; the enquiry style is worth up to 30 in source-based units]Show worked answer →
A source enquiry in AO2 style, shown at the 20-mark cap. The top level uses provenance (nature, origin, purpose) to judge each source's value for the enquiry.
Nature and origin. A Bolshevik proclamation and a Provisional Government decree have very different origins and purposes, and each is valuable for different aspects of the enquiry.
Purpose. The Bolshevik source is valuable for the case against the government; the government decree is valuable for its own claims to authority. Provenance turns each source's standpoint into evidence.
Judgement. Set against context (the June offensive, the Kornilov affair) and judge how far the sources support the view, using provenance throughout.
OCR H505 Y106 202120 marksUsing these four sources in their historical context, assess how far they support the view that Henry VII's financial policies were resented. [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 uses provenance to judge value.
Nature and origin. A petition of complaint and a royal financial record differ in nature and origin, and each is valuable for different parts of the enquiry.
Purpose. A complaint is valuable for the resentment felt; the financial record is valuable for the policy itself. Provenance turns standpoint into evidence.
Judgement. Set against context (bonds and recognisances, Empson and Dudley, their fate in 1509) and judge how far the sources support the view of resentment.
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: 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.
- 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)