DBQ Feedback (spread of Buddhism)

It was a roller coaster of emotion!

Angry

Sad

But mostly confuzzeling!

GENERAL THOUGHTS/GOOD HISTORICAL WRITING PLEASE don’t use 1st person pronouns (I, mine) OR 2nd person (you, they) Also make sure to avoid the PRESENT tense and use the PAST tense when writing UNLESS you were with Ponce De Leon, actually found the fountain of youth, and have been hiding out for the last 504 years USE THE PAST TENSE…check that, even then you would STILL have to user the past tense because these documents take place 350 CE – 850 CE.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT You need to link the historical context to the prompt. THIS IS MORE THAN A SINGLE SENTENCE! Example: “Buddhism spread to China during the Period of Disunion when China was under constant threat of nomadic invasions and people were looking for order in their lives. Because of this turbulent time, Buddhism flourished in China by giving people hope for their eternal lives and became the state religion of the Tang Dynasty.”

Thesis The thesis needs to have an A point, B point, and C point These are what make up the 3 body paragraphs! Try to frame the thesis in terms of the prompt That means all of your topic sentences should have related back to society (it’s a subtle change but one that will help with the COMPLEX UNDERSTANDING POINT) Example: “At first Buddhism had a positive impact on China’s culture and society (A) then it was viewed as coexisting with traditional Chinese religions (B) and lastly it began to be seen as a negative and foreign influence on China (C).”

Document Analysis Break down the documents individually Even though you need to put them together in the body paragraphs, based on what they have in common, you need to break them down individually to support your thesis DO NOT DO THIS (or at least only this): “Documents 1 and 3 illustrate how the idea of enlightenment comforted the Chinese during invasions”. If you do this you THEN need to go into detail for each document individually – you can’t just leave it like this an expect to get supporting credit.”

HIPP Example: Need to take the HIPP statement one step further Try to answer the WHY or SO WHAT (because is a word that will help) Remember, you are trying show the reader that you understand what MOTIVATED them to write this document. Example: “Man Yu would write this because he was a Confucian scholar who believed that Buddhism was barbaric because it was a foreign religion unlike native Confucianism”

COMPLEX UNDERSTANDING There are a few ways to earn this point: Point out specifically where documents (or groups of documents) Contradict one another Corroborate one another Qualify one another Strong topic sentences for each paragraph Compare something happening in the documents to something else that you know about in history (this is called SYNTHESIS).

Other general feedback Don’t start a paragraph with “Document 3 and 4…” Instead just get right to a strong topic sentence that tells the reader what you are trying to argue. In the case of the DQB it is probably what the documents have in common with one another. Example “Later in the Tang Dynasty Buddhism was less accepted in the Tang Dynasty.” This shows you are supporting a coherent argument INSTEAD OF “Documents 6 and 7 show that Buddhism was to blame for Tang problems.” This is just randomly talking about documents.