MAKING HISTORY How useful is a source?


A source is useful when it provides information about the topic you are researching.


‘My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. I am looked down upon by many. My father was Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at Bannavem Taburniae. …’


Extract from St Patrick’s Confession www.confessio.ie/


Assessing Your Learning


1. What is the difference between ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’? 2. Explain the following terms: interpretation; objective; biased; propaganda. 3. What is a reliable source? 4. What is a useful source?


What are the strengths and limitations (weaknesses) of some sources?


The strengths and weaknesses of sources will be important later on when you come to study sources.


Usefulness of a source


St Patrick’s Confession is a useful source for historians researching his life or life in Early Christian Ireland. It is a primary source, because it was written by him, and it provides information on his life (for example, about his father) and on the arrival of Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century.


Source


Primary and secondary sources have strengths and weaknesses as sources for historians Strengths


Weaknesses (Limitations) Primary sources ●


● ●


Secondary sources


● ●


Original sources of information on events, people


First-hand information


Better to go to original, primary sources to check out what happened


Based on primary and other secondary sources


Can cross-check (cross-reference) information from two or more sources


● ● ●


● ●


Primary sources are not always better than secondary sources – they can be biased


The primary sources could be written as propaganda


Did not witness the events or people Depends on limited number of sources


Did not live at the time of the events or people


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