StudyBrixFree worksheets, study guides and courses

Reading & writing · Grades 10–12

What the archive does not hold

Read once, answer together, and check your reasoning.

Make a worksheet

What the archive does not hold

An archive preserves official letters about a proposed factory but few accounts from nearby households. The letters discuss investment and transport access in detail. A researcher initially writes that residents had no concerns, then revises the claim: the available collection does not document residents’ concerns. The absence of such records in this archive is not the same as evidence that concerns did not exist.

Try it yourself

  1. What distinction does the revision make?

  2. Why might official letters emphasize investment and transport?

  3. Suggest another source that could help address the gap.

  4. Explain why absence of evidence must be interpreted in context.

Check your understanding

Answers and marking notes
  1. It distinguishes a gap in the available evidence from a claim about what residents actually felt.

    It distinguishes a gap in the available evidence from a claim about what residents actually felt.

  2. Their authors’ roles, purposes and audiences may focus attention on those issues.

    Their authors’ roles, purposes and audiences may focus attention on those issues.

  3. Accept local newspapers, household letters, meeting records, oral histories with appropriate limitations, petitions or other relevant evidence.

    Accept local newspapers, household letters, meeting records, oral histories with appropriate limitations, petitions or other relevant evidence.

  4. Records may never have been created, preserved, collected or included; the archive’s formation affects what an absence means.

    Records may never have been created, preserved, collected or included; the archive’s formation affects what an absence means.

Learning preview · teacher review required. Grade bands are approximate, not official curriculum alignment.