Documents as data — personal vs public, Scott's criteria
Documents (diaries, letters, government reports, laws) are data revealing time periods, values, relationships. Scott's criteria assess documents' reliability: authenticity, credibility, representativeness, meaning.
Real World
The Chilcot Report (2016) is a public document scrutinised using criteria like authenticity and credibility — historians questioned whether government communications around the Iraq War accurately reflected decision-makers' true beliefs.
Exam Focus
For 'evaluate' questions, apply all four of Scott's criteria explicitly — missing even one loses marks.
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