This set practises the four skills in writing and answer development: planning, precise evidence, using a quotation and revising an assertion. Write each answer before you open it. Questions run from easier to harder.
All questions use the invented Port Marlow dock dispute of 1926, which did not happen. The facts: a 10% pay cut was announced on 1 March; the strike began on 3 May; outside workers arrived on 17 May and unloading ran at about half speed; the council proposed talks on 8 June; the union fund was empty by 12 June; an agreement on 19 June cut the reduction to 5%.
The two sources are also invented. Source A (union leaflet, late May): “We will not unload a single crate until the cut is withdrawn.” Source B (firm’s letter, early June): “The port has not lost a single day’s trade.”
Warm-up
1. Circle the command word and underline the focus: “Explain why the dockers went on strike on 3 May 1926.”
Show answer
Command word: “Explain” (asks for reasons). Focus: why the strike began on 3 May. Your answer should give causes of the start, such as the 10% pay cut announced on 1 March, not the end of the strike.
2. Name two factors and one exact fact each for “Why did the firms accept a compromise on 19 June?”
Show answer
Factor 1: unloading was slowed. Fact: outside workers unloaded at about half speed from 17 May. Factor 2: talks were available. Fact: the council proposed talks on 8 June. Either order is fine.
3. Turn the name into evidence: “The council was involved.”
Show answer
“The council proposed talks on 8 June, eleven days before the agreement.” (8 to 19 June is 11 days.) It now says who, what and when.
Core skills
4. Add a “so what” to this fact: “The fund was empty by 12 June.”
Show answer
“The fund was empty by 12 June, so the union could no longer pay strikers, which pushed it toward accepting a compromise a week later.” The link returns to the ending of the strike.
5. Choose the better short quotation from Source A for a point about the union’s opening demand, and explain why.
Show answer
“Until the cut is withdrawn”. It is short and states the demand directly. The rest of the sentence adds little. You would then say what it shows: the union started by asking for the full pay cut to be removed.
6. Is Source B fact or viewpoint? Test it against other evidence.
Show answer
It is a viewpoint: the firm’s public claim. Other evidence, outside workers unloading at about half speed, does not fit a claim of no lost trade. So the source is better evidence of how the firm wished to appear than of the strike’s effect.
7. Sort into fact, viewpoint or interpretation: (a) “The fund was empty by 12 June.” (b) “The firm said the strike had not harmed trade.” (c) “The empty fund was the main reason the strike ended.”
Show answer
(a) Established fact within this invented scenario. (b) Viewpoint, because it is a source’s claim. (c) Interpretation, because it is a judgement you must support by weighing the evidence against other reasons.
Extending
8. Revise this unsupported claim: “The strike failed because the workers were weak.”
Show answer
“The strike ended in compromise rather than victory. The fund was empty by 12 June, and the agreement of 19 June reduced the cut to 5% rather than withdrawing it, so the dockers gained a smaller result than their opening demand.” Note the revision also avoids calling it a failure outright, because the cut was reduced from 10% to 5%.
9. Using one exact fact and one source, write two sentences for “How far did the firms lose from the strike?”
Show answer
“Source B claims ‘the port has not lost a single day’s trade’, but this is the firm’s own viewpoint. Outside workers unloaded at only about half speed from 17 May, so the firms probably did lose capacity, which helps explain why they accepted a cut of 5% instead of 10%.” The answer separates the claim from the evidence.
10. Write a full short paragraph answering “Why did the strike end on 19 June 1926?” using at least three exact facts and a judgement.
Show answer
“The strike ended mainly because the union ran out of money. The fund was empty by 12 June, a week before the agreement, so the dockers could not continue without wages. The firms also had reason to settle: outside workers unloaded at about half speed from 17 May. The council’s proposal of talks on 8 June gave both sides a route to the 5% compromise. Of these, the empty fund looks most important because the agreement followed within a week of it.” The judgement is clearly marked as interpretation and rests on the sequence of dates.
If you got these wrong
| What went wrong | Go to |
|---|---|
| Answered a nearby question, or listed the whole story (1, 2) | Plan a response around the actual question |
| Used names or vague phrases with no detail (3, 4) | Use precise evidence rather than a list of names |
| Quoted without explaining, or treated a source as fact (5, 6, 7, 9) | Explain the relevance of a quotation |
| Wrote confident claims with nothing behind them (8, 10) | Revise an unsupported assertion in an original answer |
If several types of error appear together, start with the planning lesson, because weak plans produce the other problems.
What next?
Return to the module overview for the study order, or read assessment route and independent work to see how your own assessment route fits. A teacher in online one-to-one History tuition can mark your written answers with you and match practice to your own option and depth study.