Complete the practice.
Corroboration counts only when the sources are ______ — three chronicles copying one lost ancestor multiply the copy count, not the evidence. Testimony that runs against a source’s own ______ is unusually strong, because nobody invents inconvenient facts about themselves. And when sources contradict, the pattern of disagreement is itself a ______.
Word bank: independent · interest · finding · contemporary · genre
Hints
- Independence and interest govern how testimony is weighed.
- The result is stated as a finding with its limits attached.
Show the answer
Corroboration counts only when the sources are independent — three chronicles copying one lost ancestor multiply the copy count, not the evidence. Testimony that runs against a source’s own interest is unusually strong, because nobody invents inconvenient facts about themselves. And when sources contradict, the pattern of disagreement is itself a finding.
Independent, interest, finding. Three habits that turn a pile of partial, self-interested, contradictory documents into an argument a reader can check, which is the whole job.
Practise Source Criticism in Practice
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Source Criticism in Practice
- Put the questions of source criticism in their working order.
- Sort each situation: strong corroboration or illusory corroboration?
- Two sources diverge exactly where their interests diverge. What follows?
- Four independent chronicles agree on the size of an army. How much does the agreement add?
- Why is purposeless detail often the most trustworthy part of a document?
- Source criticism is the preliminary stage completed before the historical argument begins.
- What makes a historical argument honest?
- Why is admitting what the evidence cannot settle a strength?