Social Studies 30-1 · Toolkits
The evidence bank
You cannot revise the sources, and you cannot revise the prompt. What you can revise is the evidence you bring — and Evidence is worth 8% of the diploma on its own, more than the analysis of the source itself.
Why a small bank of examples beats broad revision
Evidence is 8% of the diploma by itself — more than the analysis of the source in the position paper. And unlike the source, the evidence is entirely within your control: you decide, weeks in advance, what you will be able to bring.
Ten examples known in depth outperform fifty known vaguely, because the marks come from specificity and connection, not coverage. An example you can date, explain and link to a claim proves something; a list of names proves that you took the course.
The other reason to go deep is flexibility. A well-understood event can support either side of an argument, so a small bank stretches to cover prompts you never anticipated.
Where it turns up
- Any argument you make — the person who can name one case in detail is more persuasive than the person gesturing at many.
- Essays after high school — university writing works the same way — depth of example, not breadth of reference.
- Understanding the present — the Depression, the Cold War and the welfare state are the reference points current policy arguments are still made with.
- The exam — 8% for Evidence, and it is the part you can prepare with the most certainty.
- Why it matters
- 1. What counts as evidence
- 2. Ten examples worth knowing
- 3. Making one example serve both sides
- 4. Using evidence in a paragraph
What counts as evidence
The idea: specific, accurate and connected. A named event with a date and a consequence beats a paragraph of atmosphere every time.
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Throughout history, governments have limited freedom in emergencies. | Canada interned thousands of Japanese Canadians from 1942, and formally apologized and paid redress in 1988. |
| Communism failed in many countries. | Collectivized agriculture under Stalin in the early 1930s coincided with famine that killed millions, while output targets were still reported as met. |
| The government helps people. | Public health insurance, established nationally in Canada by 1971, removed the cost barrier to treatment and is now a standard example of liberty enabled by the state. |
Evidence can also be contemporary: a policy debate, an election result, a court decision, a protest movement. Markers notice when the most recent example a student can name is decades old.
Ten examples worth knowing
The idea: depth over breadth. Ten examples known properly will answer any prompt this exam can ask.
| Example | Useful for |
|---|---|
| The Great Depression and the New Deal | Market failure; the shift from classical to modern liberalism |
| The Soviet Union under Stalin | Command economies; the cost of authoritarian collectivism |
| Nazi Germany | Fascism; how economic crisis makes extremism electable |
| The Second World War home front | Rationing, conscription, internment — liberty suspended in a crisis |
| The Cold War and its proxy conflicts | Containment, ideology in foreign policy, the arms race |
| The postwar welfare state and Canadian medicare | Modern liberalism in practice; positive freedom |
| Deregulation and privatization after 1980 | The return of classical liberal economics |
| Civil rights and suffrage movements | Citizenship, dissent, and rights won rather than granted |
| Indigenous self-determination and treaty rights in Canada | Collective rights; the limits of individualist frameworks |
| Climate policy and pandemic measures | Collective action against individual choice, in living memory |
For each, know four things: what happened, when, why it happened, and what changed afterwards. That is enough to deploy it in a sentence.
Making one example serve both sides
The idea: the same event supports opposite positions depending on what you draw from it. Practising that is what makes a small bank sufficient.
One example, two arguments
The New Deal, arguing for intervention: unregulated markets collapsed and did not self-correct; public works and banking regulation restored employment and confidence, which is why the period reshaped what liberalism meant.
The New Deal, arguing against: recovery was slow and uneven, the programs expanded federal power permanently, and critics argue the war, not the policy, ended the Depression.
Neither version is dishonest. Both are the same facts, selected and framed for a claim — which is exactly what Argumentation is scored on.
Using evidence in a paragraph
The idea: claim, evidence, link. The link is what turns an example into an argument.
- Claim first: state what this paragraph is arguing, in your own words.
- Evidence: the example, specific and accurate — who, when, what happened.
- Link: explain how the example supports the claim, and what it implies about the source's position.
- Acknowledge the other reading where it is strong, then say why your reading holds anyway.
Watch out: evidence dropped in without a link reads as a list of things you know. The marker is not assessing whether you can name events — they are assessing whether the event proves your point.