[Crazy-Fish]

Help!
Two quick questions. . .
1) For source B, how are we supposed to test the utility of the source if we do not have the provenance?

2) Will I get penalised for writing 3-4000 words over the word limit of 1250?

Please can someone reply quite quickly, because my deadline is tomorrow. . .
Thanking you already!

[MrJohnDClare]

Crazy-Fish, on Nov 23 2008, 08:00 AM, said:

1) For source B, how are we supposed to test the utility of the source if we do not have the provenance?

With great difficulty. Without ANY provenance you are restricted to an analysis of what the content reveals (surface and inference).
Without the question in front of me, I can't really say any more.
Do they give you ANY clues as to authoriship or date - 'written by an American' etc. This is all you need to address the utility of the source - 'well-placed to know', 'in addition etremely trustworthy etc.'
If I were you, I would try to track it down on the internet. Type phrases from the source into google in between inverted commas, and see if it turns up anything.
If you want, type it up on this forum, and we will see if we recognise it.

Quote

2) Will I get penalised for writing 3-4000 words over the word limit of 1250?

I don't know of any Board which actively penalises for exeeding the word limit. AQA certainly don't. However, three to four THOUSAND would mean you have exceeded the limit by 300%, and if I were your teacher I would be telling you to cut it down.
I think for me the key question is why you are exceeding the limit.

If it is for these reasons:
1. You have a wordy style full of irrelevant phrases - ' therefore, as we pause to assess the question so far in all its complexity' etc.
2. You give five examples instead of one.
3. You go off on irrelevancies which are interesting but nothing to do with the question.
4. You have started with an overview/summary of how the situation came about which occupies 3 pages.
etc.
You need to go back and exercise the knife.

If it is because your teacher has given you too big a question, which to answer fully REQUIRES (even writing as effiiciently as possible) a very long answer, then I would personally answer it properly and to hell with the consequences.
If every point you make is honed and fresh, write it down.

The worst that can happen is that they draw a line 1,250 words in and only mark that - so make sure that your first 1250 words:
1. answer the whole question (though parts only in summary)
2. are the best bit with all the best ideas.

[Crazy-Fish]

The question is the same as the one on your site. Source B is the satirical cartoon from 'Haig's Private War'. I went to get the book from the library but it was not there, they didn't have it in the whole of the Wakefield district.
I'll cut down, and try not to do what I did earlier which was add several hundred words while trying to cut down. . .
Thanks very much for the help.

[MrJohnDClare]

Crazy-Fish, on Nov 23 2008, 08:54 AM, said:

The question is the same as the one on your site. Source B is the satirical cartoon from 'Haig's Private War'. I went to get the book from the library but it was not there, they didn't have it in the whole of the Wakefield district.

Ah - yes, you're right.
The source is absolutely untraceable.
I have even contacted (through the Board) the examiner who set the question originally, and HE can't remember where it came from - apparently it was on a worksheet, now lost, left over from a previous teacher in his department. Actually, I don't even think the 'book' (General Haig's Private War) exists at all - I suspect that it was a title to the drawing.

However, I think you can construct a provenance which will help you evaluate the source:

• It is a satirical spoof on the Kitchener: 'You country needs you' poster - ie its motive is satire and humour, not academic evaluation.
  
• The humour clearly comes from the 1970s-80s period - a time when Haig's reputation was at its lowest
  
• You can infer the bias of the author from the title of the book.

I would assess it provenance-wise as you would assess Oh What Lovely War or Blackadder goes forth .

[Crazy-Fish]

Thankyou very much! I can finish it in time now. . .