Answering the Explain question: giving developed reasons for an event or development, drawn from recall, where each fully developed reason earns a mark.

What this dot point is asking

The Explain question is the causation question in SQA National 5 History. It appears in each context of the question paper, Scottish, British, and European and World, and tests whether you can give reasons for an event, development or action using your own recalled knowledge. No source is provided, so the marks come from what you have learned. The command word "explain" controls the task: you must show why something happened, not simply state what happened. The usual stem is "Explain the reasons why...".

This dot point is the partner to the Describe question. Where Describe rewards facts, Explain rewards the links between facts, the cause-and-effect chains that show understanding. It is the question where candidates most often lose marks by listing factors without developing them, so learning what "developed" means is the key to scoring well.

The answer

An Explain question rewards developed reasons, drawn from your own knowledge, that show how a cause produced an outcome. The method has three steps. First, read the tariff, because SQA marks these point by point and a 6 mark question signals you need around six developed reasons. Second, recall distinct causes of the event in question. Third, develop each cause into a reason by linking it to the result, typically with a phrase such as "which meant that" or "so". A factor merely named scores nothing; a factor linked to its consequence scores the mark.

Name the factor, then develop it

The single move that separates a high-scoring Explain answer from a low-scoring one is development. Naming a factor is the start, not the finish. "The harvest failed" names a cause; to earn the mark you must carry it through to the outcome: "the harvest failed, so food prices rose sharply and many families could no longer feed themselves". The link from cause to consequence is what the marker credits.

Use a cause-to-effect shape

A reliable structure for each reason is "this, which meant that, so". State the factor, state what it caused, and state the result. For example: "Many landowners switched to sheep farming (factor), which meant they no longer needed tenant labour (consequence), so families were evicted from land they had farmed for generations (outcome)." That single chain is one fully developed reason. Writing four to six such chains, each about a different factor, builds a full-mark answer.

Keep reasons distinct

Two reasons that make the same point in different words count as one. Before writing, plan a spread of distinct factors, for example political, economic, social and individual causes, so each reason adds something new. A 6 mark answer built from six genuinely different developed reasons is safer than one that circles the same idea.

Examples in context

Suppose an Explain question asks why a reform was introduced. A weak answer lists factors with no links: "There was poverty. There was campaigning. The government was worried. There were reports." Four factors, four sentences, but none is developed, so the answer scores very little.

A full-mark answer develops each: "Widespread poverty meant large numbers lived in conditions that shocked investigators, so pressure grew for the state to act"; "campaigners published detailed evidence, which forced the issue into public debate and made inaction politically costly"; "the government feared unrest if nothing changed, so ministers saw reform as a way to keep order"; "official reports recommended specific measures, which gave politicians a ready-made plan to adopt". Four developed reasons, each linking cause to outcome.

Try this

Q1. What is the difference between naming a factor and giving a developed reason? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. Naming a factor states a cause only; a developed reason links that cause to its effect, showing how it produced the outcome, which is what earns the mark.

Q2. Develop the factor "the king needed money" into a full reason for a tax being raised. [1 mark]

• What the marker wants. A linked chain such as "the king needed money to pay for war, so he raised new taxes to fund his army", carrying the factor through to the outcome.

Q3. Why does a list of four factors in short sentences score poorly on a 6 mark Explain question? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. Because the factors are undeveloped: they are named but not linked to their effects, so they show recognition rather than the causal understanding the marker rewards.

A note on sources

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. Question wording and mark allocations follow the published SQA National 5 History format; verify current paper structure and question types against the SQA National 5 History course specification and marking instructions at sqa.org.uk.