(Document-Based Question) WRITING A DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION To understand the documents, apply: Audience Class Occupation Religion Nationality Political Education Gender Answer “based” on the documents AND outside information In order to answer the question effectively: Know the question!! Include a strong, comprehensive thesis. Use majority of documents as support. Refer to documents by author within sentence. Do NOT editorialize! D.B.Q. (Document-Based Question) Group documents by: Gender Occupation Date Geography Social class POV Etc… The objective of a DBQ is for the writer to show s/he understands the documents, how they are related, as well as how the documents are connected to the statement provided.

Authorial Point of View: WRITING A DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION Students should be applying critical thinking skills to documents, evaluating whether they are likely to be accurate and complete, and in what ways the author of the document may be revealing bias. Attribution: Use the name of the author or a document or something about the author given in the document. Authorial Point of View: Gender, occupation, class, religion, nationality or ethnic identity of the author may well have influenced the views that are expressed. Reliability and accuracy of source: Question whether the author of the document would be in a position to be accurate… Tone or intent of the author: Tone might determine intent. Grouping of documents by authors: Grouping shows awareness of similarities of authors / documents.