history is fun

The purpose question is another form of inference. It is asking you to make an inference of the purpose of the source.

Normally, the question takes the form of 'Why was Source B written'

In order to answer the question, you need to be able to infer the purpose of the source. As long as you understand the source and the historical context of the source, it can be quite easy to score the full marks.

For example, 'Why was this blog post written?'

This blog post was written to show students how to do a purpose SBQ question, this can be supported by evidence 'in order to answer the question'. This shows that the post is trying to impress upon students the required techniques to answer the question.

If you can answer this, you have understood the source, however, is this all there is to it? You must realise that embedded within the source there is a certain message to the audience so that the audience will do something after they read it.

For example

This blog post was written by a history teacher [speaker/writer] a week before the history SA2 exams [context] to convince [strong verb] students [audience] that the purpose question is easy to score marks, so that students will be confident going into SA2 and be able to do well for this history [intended impact]. This can be supported by evidence from the source "can be quite easy to score the full marks" [evidence]

Hence, your answer should be similar to the two paragraphs listed above.

Para 1 - What is the purpose of the source upon your first reading of the source? What does the source show or tell?

Para 2 - What is the embedded purpose within the source? What is the author trying to get the audience to do after they read it? Bear in mind for this paragraph that you need to have the author, audience, a strong verb . In order to get the intended impact of the audience, you will also need to understand the context of the source, i.e. when was the source written? who is the audience? All of this must be supported by evidence from the source.