Question 3 will ask you to consider the credibility of each of the documents in the resource booklet, making two points of assessment for each of the three documents. With three marks available for each point of assessment, there are a lot of marks to be won or lost here. It’s therefore important that you answer this question well.

Question Format

The question will look something like this: “Consider the credibility of Documents 1, 2, and 3. For each document make two points of assessment, each of which should: identify a relevant credibility criterion; use this to assess the credibility of the document; support your assessment with reference to the text.”

Strategy

For this question, you must use the criteria of credibility. If you don’t, your answer will be a disaster. It’s also important that you assess the credibility of the documents as a whole, rather than the witnesses within them. This applies even if the document is written by a single author.

To make sure that you hit all of the assessment criteria, it’s worth developing a standard format for your answers, e.g.: “[Document #]’s credibility is [strengthened / weakened by credibility criterion] [explanation of relevance]; [supporting quote from text].”

Sample Answers

Applied to imaginary documents, the standard answer format given above might be fleshed out as follows:

“Document 1’s credibility is strengthened by relevant expertise, as its author is professional stunt man so will be able to accurately assess how dangerous it was to jump through a flaming hoop on a motorcycle; ‘Author: Max Danger, professional stunt man.’”

“Document 2’s credibility is strengthened by a good ability to see, as it contains several eye-witness reports; ‘Keith Fear was at the event…’, ‘… the stadium announcer.’”