Teaching Teaching

Source Source

Analysis Analysis Skills Skills

How to analyse sources…

Consider:

Origin

Motive Usefulness

Content Reliability

Author Perspective

Type

Sources in general

You will be provided with a variety of sources in the SACE exam.

They could be posters, photographs, tables, maps, memoirs, letters, poems, texts, internet articles, diary entries etc.

Here are just a few…

• Posters are examples of propagandaand should be carefully analysed becauseof their purpose. They are designed to persuade, make someone do something orthink in a certain way (they play on emotions).

• DO NOT dismiss them as unreliable and therefore not useful.

PropagandaAnswer the questions usingthe following posters-

• How do these posters attract attention?

• What emotions do the posters try to appeal to?

• What message are they giving?• In what ways do the posters

create these emotions?• What is bias?• How can you tell some of these

posters are biased?• Which (in your opinion) is the

most successful poster? Why?

Analyse two posters using the three terms in bold below:

‘Usefulness, Reliability & Perspective’

ie. “Assess the usefulness of the posters to a historian studying the use of propaganda in WWI. In your answer consider their reliability and the perspectives provided by the two posters.”

This poster has been used a few times at the SACE. It is early on in the war, targeting enlistment. It uses the womanly figure, with children, telling her men to “Go!”

If you were being asked how useful this poster would be to an historian studying the home front, it would be VERY useful.

What does it show?

It shows how voluntary enlistment petered off as the impact of the early battles and casualty rates rose.

It shows early Government attempts to manipulate civilian population and the necessity of establishing the Ministry of Propaganda.

PoemsA poem written by theBritish poet/soldierSiegfried Sassoon in1918.

SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES

I knew a simple soldier boyWho grinned at life in empty joy,Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,With crumps and lice and lack of rum,He put a bullet through his brain.No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindlingeyeWho cheer when soldier lads march by,Sneak home and pray you'll never knowThe hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon

• One thing the examiners do not want to read is an analysis of the poem as if it was an English question.

• Who cares about the responder and the composer in Modern History?

• We certainly don’t want to read about poetic techniques.

• Stick to the point. Answer the question asked in a concise manner.

• How is this poem useful, say to an historian studying changing attitudes to the war?

It shows the early attitudes to the war, light-hearted ‘grinned at life in empty joy’; then how the war has impacted on that soldier, ‘bullet through his brain”.

Sassoon uses emotive language to get his point across to the “smug-faced crowds”,as he describes the “hell where youth and laughter go”.

SUICIDE IN THE TRENCHES

I knew a simple soldier boyWho grinned at life in empty joy,Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,With crumps and lice and lack of rum,He put a bullet through his brain.No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindlingeyeWho cheer when soldier lads march by,Sneak home and pray you'll never knowThe hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon

• The perspective of this source would also be noted, it is from hindsight, looking back at WWI, from a point in time when the statistics had been analysed, so that an historian could quantify how much time was spent in the front, support and reserve lines.

• There is no particular country bias, it is educated, its purpose is to inform.

Photographs

Photographs are usually used in the 1st or 2nd question. Make sure you carefully examine the photograph and describe what you see.

However, if you were asked to assess its usefulness to an historian studying conditions in the trenches, what could you say?

They show:

Troops taking up their positions in the trenches on the front line.

The poor construction of the trenches, remember the British saw the trenches as temporary, as they would be going forward in the spirit of the offensive.

The devastation of the terrain, no vegetation in no man’s land, the mud etc.

• The perspective is the photographer. It is what he wants you to see, the sense of purpose. No dead bodies etc.

• Note the camera angle – fromabove looking down.

• The technology of the time meant that the cameraman wouldhave been very vulnerable up on the top of the parapet.

• Therefore it is not a battle photo, but probably staged, so not that reliable.

The realities of war were rarely shown tothe public at the time.

The one time that the British public saw a scene approaching the real situation, TheSomme movie 1916, the reaction was notwhat was intended – people were

shocked atwhat the soldiers were going through.

Maps and TablesYou should not just write ‘as shown in the map’. You need to be more specific: e.g. the French army was to the south, the pink shaded area, around the Somme Canal, the British armies were to the north.

Tables are usually used in the comprehension question and you need to take a little care so that you don’t get confused.

Source A: Total Casualties for the war

  Mobilised Killed Wounded

British Empire 8 900 000 1 000 000 2 000 000

France 8 400 000 1 360 000 4 000 000

Russia 12 000 000 1 700 000 5 000 000

USA 1 750 000 80 000 180 000

Italy 5 600 000 460 000 900 000

Germany 11 000 000 1 800 000 4 200 000

Austria-Hungary

7 800 000 1 200 000 3 000 000

Turkey 2 850 000 650 000 950 000

A) Which country had the greatest number of men Killed?Germany

B) Which of the Allied Powers or Central Powers had the greatest number of men wounded?Russia

C) Which country had the least number of men killed? U.S.A.

Last pointers…

DO NOT to make sweeping statements, “Source B is a primary source and therefore it is reliable.” There are primary sources that are very useful, but not that reliable: e.g. posters.

Make sure that you answer the question that is set, not the one you wished had been set.

Make sure you use BOTH sources AND that they are the right sources. Using the wrong source will mean that you will get ZERO for the question because you will have failed to answer the question!

Make sure you assess USEFULNESS PERSPECTIVE & RELIABILITY.