Source evaluation and footnotes help!

[ilovepotato]

Hi, I am writing my EE in history, and I know I have to do source evaluation but now that I'm having trouble cutting down the words (600 to go...), I was wondering if I could put some of my evaluations in footnote format. Would they still count towards the total word count in that case? Can I even put SOME evaluations in footnotes?

EQ: Is it possible to have 2 footnotes for a sentence (one for actual source citation, the other for briefly explaining the values and limits of the source)?

Thank you!!!

[khimberleigh]

You don't have to evaluate your sources for you history EE. You evaluate them in the sense that you might look at different views on your topic but you don't do OPVL or anything like that for EE (you do for the IA though).

[ilovepotato]

You don't have to evaluate your sources for you history EE. You evaluate them in the sense that you might look at different views on your topic but you don't do OPVL or anything like that for EE (you do for the IA though).

But my advisor (& past history teacher) both told me that source evaluation is an important criterion, and I have also read elsewhere on the forum that it must be done?

[khimberleigh]

The only criterion that really talks specifically about sources is 'C: investigation' which to get full marks in it you need to have done the following:

"An imaginative range of appropriate sources has been consulted, or data has been gathered, and relevant material has been carefully selected. The investigation has been well planned."

You can 'evaluate' the sources by looking at different interpretations on the topic from different sources, and maybe saying briefly why one source (and therefore one view point) may be less valid (ie. it could be propaganda or a speech etc.). But in doing this you should be focusing more on the different interpretations than on the actual sources themselves. You don't need to do OPVL or something similar for all of your sources for the EE.

Your teacher could be meaning that it is important to evaluate different interpretations from sources because that is deffinitely true.

Maybe have a look at the IB EE guide for more clarity.

[ilovepotato]

I think it's criterion F (application of analytical and evaluative skills appropriate to the subject) that directly addresses source evaluation.

Anyhow, I didn't actually do a complete "OPVL" evaluation for each source like on the IA. Instead, I mentioned in a few sentences (or a brief paragraph) how the source can be useful and/or limited, and I only did it for some of the sources I referenced (not sure if that is good or bad). Now I'm just not sure if I could put that in my footnotes instead and get around the word count.

[khimberleigh]

You won't lose marks for doing source evaluation and it could help your argument/evaluation/holistic judgement criteria. Just don't do it for every single source because it'll waste precious words. You could put it in your footnotes, but remember that examiners are not obliged to read footnotes, so if you're writing something important that you think will improve your grade then include it in the actual essay rather than a footnote.