How to write a source answer
The shape of a paragraph that scores
- The specification says answers are paragraph-length. Not essays, not notes. Each of the three questions gets a developed paragraph or two.
- Use the same five moves every time, in this order:
- Claim — answer the question in your own words, in one sentence.
- Source one — name it, give the evidence, and say what it shows.
- Source two — name it, give the evidence, and say what it adds to the first.
- Source comment — who made it, when, why, and what that does to its weight.
- Beyond — a conclusion beyond the obvious, or a question a historian would ask next.
- The first four moves earn Merit. The fifth is what makes it Excellence.
- Claim first is not a style preference. The marking schedule's own wording is frames explanation in own words, while drawing on the sources for supporting evidence. Evidence-first paragraphs do not meet that description no matter how good the evidence is.
Quoting properly
- Quote short and quote often. Three to eight words inside your own sentence. The 2024 report describes Excellence candidates as using concise quotes, or paraphrasing in their own words.
- Never open a paragraph with a quote, and never let a quote stand as a whole sentence on its own. A quote must be doing a job inside a sentence you wrote.
- Paraphrasing counts. If a source's point takes thirty words to quote, put it in eight of your own and name the source.
- Always name the source letter. Source D shows... Markers are matching your evidence to a specific source; an unattributed fact cannot be credited.
- Copying a long passage scores nothing. It is named in the Not Achieved list every year: quoted directly from the source but did not answer the question in their own words.
Using more than the minimum
- Each question names a minimum of two sources. Two is a floor.
- Add a third when it does something the first two cannot — contradicts them, dates them, or covers a group they miss. Do not add a third that repeats them.
- Excellence descriptors say "an extensive range of evidence" and "synthesised information from different sources". Synthesis means the sources are talking to each other in your paragraph, not queuing up one after another.
- A good test: if you could delete one source from your answer and lose nothing, it should not have been there.
Timing, and why Question Three gets written first by clever candidates
- Three questions, one paper. Divide the writing time roughly evenly — each question is marked out of 8, so each is worth the same.
- Read the Introduction and skim every source before answering anything. Ten minutes spent knowing what is in the booklet saves more than it costs, because you will otherwise use the wrong sources for Question One and find the right ones under Question Three.
- Annotate the booklet. You may keep it, and nothing in it is marked. Underline the attribution lines, mark dates, and write the source's type beside each one.
- If you are running short of time, write Question Three anyway. A rushed Question Three scores; an empty one does not, and the 2025 report names omitting it as a common cause of Not Achieved.
Reaching Excellence without extra knowledge
- Draw a conclusion the sources support but do not state. Two sources that agree on something neither is about is the classic case.
- Raise a question the booklet cannot answer. Name the missing evidence and say what it would settle. This is directly instructed on the front of every paper, and it is the cheapest Excellence marker there is.
- Corroborate. Say when two sources with different origins agree, and say when two sources that appear to agree share an origin.
- Split every judgement. Useful for X, not for Y. Reliable about A, not about B. Unsplit judgements read as guesses.
- Use contextual knowledge as a tool, not as filler. If you know the period, use what you know to judge a source — not to add facts the question did not ask for.
Worked Example
Worked example
Question: What were the reasons behind the Waipuna Borough Council's 1906 decision that women were ineligible to stand? Use evidence from the Introduction and at least TWO of Sources A–D.
Build the answer using the five moves.
Answer:
Move 1 — Claim, in my own words, before returning to the booklet.
Move 2 — Source one, with what it shows.
Move 3 — Source two, with what it adds.
Move 4 — Source comment, on who made it and why.
Move 5 — Beyond: a conclusion the sources support but do not state, and a question.
Claim, two sources each doing different work, a comment on how one was made and what that costs it, and a closing conclusion the booklet supports but never states — followed by the question that would test it.