This tool helps you practise careful source use. You choose a short practice source, pick a question type, and write five short answers: what the source says, what you can infer, the context you actually know, its limits and your judgement. It then builds an outline, a source-use checklist and a text file you can download.
There is no mark. The aim is the habit of keeping evidence, inference and context apart.
How do I use it?
- Choose a practice source from the list, or pick “Use my own source” and type a short extract, with its date and author only if they are stated.
- Choose a question type: what you can learn, how useful the source is, or whether it supports a claim. For the third type, write the claim.
- Fill in the first box with what the source says, using a short quotation or a description. This box is required.
- Fill in the other boxes for inference, context, limits and judgement. Leave context empty if you know no relevant facts.
- Press Build my outline. Read the warnings, tick the checklist and, if you like, download the outline.
- Reset clears the page.
Example walk-through
Keep the default source, the diary entry. It has no date and no author, and the tool shows both as “not stated (treat as unknown)”. Under “What it says”, write that the road to the mill is muddy and that carts have stuck.
Under “What I can infer”, write “the council wanted to delay the road”. Press Build my outline. A warning appears: the author is not stated, so a motive cannot be given as fact. The words “wanted to” triggered it, and the diary says only that the council has promised a road for four years.
Rewrite it as “the diary suggests the road may have been neglected, but the writer is not named and is one voice”. Add a limits line saying the date is unknown and the source is private. If you had written a year in the inference or context boxes, a second warning would say the date is unknown, so the source should not be tied to a specific event. A final warning always reminds you that one source cannot prove every claim.
How do I read the result?
- Source facts repeats the date and author, or shows them as unknown.
- The five-part outline is the structure for your answer: content, inference, context, limits, judgement.
- Warnings point at speculation. They are prompts, not penalties.
- The checklist has five statements to tick honestly before you finish.
What are the limits?
The warning check looks for certain motive words and four-digit years, so it will miss a well-hidden guess and may flag a word that is fine in context. Reading your own answer against the checklist is still your job.
The tool does not fill in missing history. It will not invent an author, a date or a motive. It does not rank political positions and cannot complete assessed coursework. Exact syllabus option and depth study matter for real questions.
Which lessons explain the output?
- Identify an explicit claim made by a primary source supports the first box.
- Relate source purpose and audience to its use as evidence supports the limits box.
- Explain what a source cannot establish is the core of the warnings.
- Interpret a source in its documented setting explains how to use the context box.
- Evidence and source interpretation is the module for the whole skill, and its integrated practice gives more practice.
For help turning these steps into confident answers, see online one-to-one History tuition. The full list of learning aids is on the tools page.