History source question

[namechanger110]

History question here. Please can someone explain the difference to me between an inference source question and a usefulness source question? I understand the basic difference between them but would you not talk in an inference question about the quality of the source, its reliability or its purpose? Would this not affect what can be inferred from the source? If this is the case then what in reality is the actual difference between an inference and usefulness question and how is the approach to them different? Thank you.

I’m assuming we are talking about GCSE? On the specification I teach an inference question is only worth 4 marks and they are prompted to give two things that can be drawn from the source in relation to a particular investigation and then support each one with some detail from the source. The utility question is, like you said, thinking about how the purpose etc. affects the inferences that can be made from it. GCSE History is untiered and needs to examine grade 1 right through to grade 9. At A level there is no inference question, just a 30 mark source utility/value essay.

DumbledoresApprentice has given a great answer.

Very basically, an inference is what you can work out from the source (usually based on its contents). Whereas, for usefulness or utility you need to write about the content, origin, purpose and nature of the source and how they impact how useful it is.

Thank you - so you DON'T talk about what you can infer from a source when you write a usefulness question? Just having difficulty working out the difference between inference (inference question) and content (usefulness question).

You would write about what can be inferred from a source in a utility question but you wouldn’t write about usefulness or provenance for an inference question. for usefulness you write about about what you can learn from the source (considering the context, purpose, medium, author etc.) and explain why that would be useful for the investigation stated in the question.

Are you a teacher? If you’ve got access to the exam board websites it might be worth taking a look at some of the example answers and commentaries that they’ve released since last summer to see how the answers should look in practice.

Dumbledores Apprentice is exactly right again. You do write about inferences for a utility question , but you must also consider nature (book, painting, letter, diary etc), origin and purpose. Usually utility questions are worth a lot more marks and that gives you a hint that you need to write more.

Written well, an explanation of the usefulness of a source's content will contain inferences. Some pupils might just copy the source, but that would be a weak answer.