Compare factory accounts
🎯 Try it
The accounts below are fictional practice texts.
What can these fictional accounts establish about actual nineteenth-century wages?
Compare each speaker’s position, purpose, and what they could observe.
🔎 Worked example
✏️ Source cards: fictional practice accounts
A · Mill owner, public statement: “The mill gives families regular wages. Machines help us make cloth more quickly. I want this town to welcome another factory.”
B · Young worker, private recollection: “My wages help pay for food at home. The noise makes talking difficult. By the end of a long shift, I feel tired.”
Both texts were written for this exercise. No historical date, real witness, or actual factory is implied. Use them to practise a method, then apply the method to dated authentic sources.
Both source cards mention an economic benefit, but they select different experiences. Use exact words to support your conclusion; these fictional texts cannot establish real history.
✏️ Practice
💭 Your answer
Which comparison is best supported by the supplied text?
✅ Quick check
What is the strongest next research step?
🔑 Answers
🔑 Practice answers
💡 Hint and challenge
💡 Hint: Use three columns: claim, exact supporting words, unanswered question.
⭐ Challenge: Explain why a source with a persuasive purpose can still contain useful evidence.
🔎 Challenge answer
A persuasive source may still provide checkable details and evidence of the author’s aims. Separate the claim, purpose, and independent corroboration rather than accepting or rejecting the whole account.