Assess and suggest explanations
Compare possible causes against the whole evidence and propose checks that distinguish them.
Section 28-5.2.2 · 2028–2030 · 5.2.2 · Propose alternative explanations
Original StudyForA scenarios and formative model answers; no Cambridge marks, predicted grades or certified mastery. Alternative reasoned answers may be valid. Full-length unseen papers, a wider mixed-problem bank and calibrated specialist teacher marking remain outstanding.
Before you begin
- Read an English passage closely
- Distinguish a statement from its supporting reason
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
Before evaluating support, what should you identify?
What you will learn
- Assess whether an explanation accounts for the evidence
- Suggest plausible alternatives without presenting them as established facts
An explanation accounts for an observation
An explanation answers why something happened; an argument supplies reasons to accept a claim. A proposed explanation is weakened if it fails to account for part of the evidence, needs unsupported additional events, or is no more plausible than alternatives. Plausibility is not certainty.
A fictional café’s sales rise after both a discount and a nearby festival. ‘The discount caused the rise’ fits the timing, but the festival offers a rival explanation. The two causes may also contribute together; alternatives need not be mutually exclusive.
Seek discriminating evidence
List what each explanation predicts. Compare matched days with and without a discount and with and without a festival, while recognising remaining differences. A randomised or otherwise well-controlled comparison can provide stronger causal evidence than a before/after count alone.
Avoid adding imaginary facts to rescue a favourite explanation. State them as hypotheses and identify a check. An alternative only needs to be credible enough to show that the original cause has not been uniquely established.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
Can two explanations contribute to the same observed rise?
Worked example
Assess the claim that a café discount alone explains higher sales during a festival.
Show the worked solution
- Both changes occurred together.
- Festival footfall could also raise sales.
- Matched comparisons are needed to separate their contributions.
Answer The discount may contribute, but the evidence does not establish it as the sole cause. Festival attendance is a plausible alternative or additional cause, so the causal conclusion should remain qualified.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
Guided: Suggest one festival-related explanation for café sales.
Give me a hint
Connect the festival to the mechanism.
Compare my reasoning
- The festival may bring more people nearby.
- More potential customers can raise transactions.
- This is a hypothesis needing footfall data.
Festival footfall may bring additional potential customers and increase transactions. This is a plausible mechanism, not an established fact about the café; visitor counts would help test it.
Look for these in your work
- States a mechanism
- Links it to the rise
- Labels uncertainty
Independent: Absence falls after a school introduces both a reminder system and a new bus route. Assess the reminder-only explanation.
Give me a hint
Identify the simultaneous change.
Compare my reasoning
- Both interventions precede the fall.
- Improved transport could reduce absence.
- Compare groups or periods that separate the interventions.
The reminder system may help, but the new bus route is a plausible additional explanation. The before/after result cannot isolate their contributions; comparisons that separate exposure to the two changes would improve the evidence.
Look for these in your work
- Recognises confounding
- Explains an alternative
- Suggests a relevant comparison
Application: A sensor shows a temperature rise only after its battery is replaced, while a second sensor remains stable. Suggest and assess an explanation.
Give me a hint
Account for both sensor readings.
Compare my reasoning
- A calibration shift could affect one sensor.
- A uniform true temperature rise fits the second reading less well.
- Compare both sensors against a calibrated reference.
A calibration change in the first sensor explains its rise alongside the stable second reading. A real local temperature change remains possible, but should be checked by placing both sensors beside a calibrated reference before choosing between explanations.
Look for these in your work
- Uses the whole evidence
- Compares alternatives
- Proposes a discriminating check
Common mistakes
- Treating sequence as proof of cause
- Assuming alternatives cannot coexist
- Inventing supporting facts
What can you explain now?
Can two explanations contribute to the same observed rise?
Compare with the explanation
Yes, causes may act together
Rival explanations can be competing, complementary or both.
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Make it stick
Can two explanations contribute to the same observed rise?
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.