How To DBQ

1. How To DBQ

2. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, with edits by JR Hellman There are one story intellects, Two story intellects, and three story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors who have no aim beyond their facts are one story men, two story intellects compare, reason, generalize; using the labor of fact collecting. Three story intellects idealize, imagine, predict… Their best illumination comes from above the skylight And they create the skylights.

3. Document-based questions (DBQs) require you to do several things well. . . • You must understand the prompt and come up with an “answer” that will be your thesis. • You must come up with AND USE outside information—names, dates, treaties, battles, significant events, etc.—from the time period. • You must USE all or most of the documents that are provided. • You must create a clearly organized and well-written essay.

4. Step 1:Before your read the Docs • Breathe and relax. • Read the prompt several times, focusing on: -directive words -terms to define -categories for organization (potential paragraphs) -areas of complexity. • Generate an outline of your essay. • Identify the time period/topic and brainstorm all of the outside information you can think of.

5. Step 1 continued: Outlines do not have to be formal, just sketch a structure to organize your ideas, facts, and potential paragraphs S-t: facts facts S-t: facts facts This outline will help you develop your thesis paragraph!

6. Step 1: Before your read the Docs Summary • You have quickly done some very important preparation for the essay. • You have carefully read the prompt several times. • You have “answered” the prompt, decided your thesis direction (hypothesis). • You have generated a preliminary outline for your essay. • You have jotted down outside information to support your thesis. • Only now are you ready to deal with the documents.

7. Step 2: Use APPARTSor CCP A – Author P – Place and Time P – Prior Knowledge C-Context A – Audience R – Reason (Purpose) C-Content T – The Main Idea S – Significance P-Point of view

8. Step 2 : Analyzing the Docs • All of the documents will be relevant to the topic. • Plan on using all or most of the documents provided. • Sometimes the date or the author in the source notation may be significant. • The documents are generally presented chronologically. • Pay special attention to cartoons, charts, & graphs.

9. Step 2: continued Analyzing the Docs • Quickly read all of the documents. • Remember to consider the author, date, and place in the source material. • Underline any unusual phrases. • As you read, jot down any quick summary thoughts about the documents and/or indicate where on your essay outline the info from the docs belong.

10. Step #2 (continued) • Look carefully at political cartoons. • Pay attention to any small print. • Jot down a quick summary of what the cartoon is trying to tell you and use it in your outline. New York Tribune, 1923,

11. Step #2 (continued) • Graphs and charts are important, look at them carefully. • Note the dates. • Notice that they frequently show change over time. • Jot down a quick summary of what they indicate and/or include the key ideas in your outline.

12. Step # 2 (continued) • Look very carefully at data presented in charts. • Look for • trends, • for changes over time, • for sudden changes. • Summarize what the chart tells you in a quick sentence.

13. Step #2 (continued) • Notice dates, especially on pictures. • The picture on the left is dated 1915; the picture on the right is dated 1919. • What had changed for working women in those years? Why?

14. Having read the documents. . . • Note the documents you have added to your “outline” and add new facts and revise your (hypo)thesis as needed. • Use APPARTS or CCP to add analysis. • Remember, make sure that you have both—outside information and documents—to support each point/sub-thesis of your essay.

15. Before the Docs and Analyzing the Docs Summary You have now spent about 15 of the mandatory preparation minutes • Reading the prompt, • Planning a basic structure for your response, • Brainstorming and listing relevant information into the essay structure, • Reading and analyzing the documents, • Adding the documents to your essay outline, • Creating and clarifying a thesis paragraph

16. Step #3: Writing the essay • Refer to the document; NEVER quote them at length! Use no more than a quick phrase or three or four words! • Don’t explain the document. Simply refer to it or use it to support your thesis. • Refer to the author of the document: “In Lincoln’s letter” or “The Nast cartoon illuminates” or “The complaints of the Rhode Island legislators exemplfy (A) • Cite every document by using its letter, e.g. (A). You don’t need to write (doc. A).

17. This document appeared in the 1999 DBQ. Notice the source note.

18. The most significant thing about this document is the date, 1754, in the source note. • This document was intended to bring to mind the following: • The 1754 meeting of the London Board of Trade, • Benjamin Franklin, printer from Philadelphia and colonial agent, • Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union, • The Albany Plan of Union’s provisions for a colonial legislature, • The ultimate failure of the colonies to accept the Albany Plan of Union in 1754.

19. This document might be used as follows: An excellent indication that the colonies were unwilling to act together in a unified way is their failure to accept Franklin’s plan for a colonial legislature as put forth in his 1754 Albany Plan of Union. Despite Franklin’s belief that the colonies must act together or “die” as portrayed in his widely read cartoon (A), very few of the colonial assemblies were willing to accept this contention.

20. Here is a text passage from a recent DBQ and a sample essay reference: One of the most significant attempts to extend democratic ideals throughout society was organized by the women's movement in the late 1840s. Meeting at Seneca Falls, NY, a group of women brought together by Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, demanded their right to vote and their right to be represented in the government (I). These demands, purposefully written in the model of the Declaration of Independence, are the most fundamental and basic of rights in a genuinely democratic society.

21. How to DBQ Summary • Thoroughly read the prompt: Question the Question! • In an essay outline, organize how you will use both the outside information and the documents. • Place the brainstormed list of outside information in your outline, before reading the documents • Use all or most of the documents, without quoting, citing and placing them as you read, into your outline, with the outside information. • Write a clear and well-organized essay that directly responds to the prompt.