The DBQ What you need to know about writing a document based essay

Purpose of a DBQ Not to test a student’s prior knowledge, but rather to evaluate their ability to formulate and support an answer from documentary evidence Think like a historian

How to answer the question Use prior knowledge with the information gathered from the documents to formulate an answer to the question You will be given several documents with information related to your essay question.

The Documents Documents are chosen for their information and the perspective they convey (POV) Not all documents may be relevant in answering the question (WHAP Yes, APUSH No)

The Documents Enclosed in boxes Usually background information is given

The Documents Ex: You are writing an essay on why Mr. Burton is the best teacher at SHS. You are given 8 documents from the viewpoints of students, teachers, and principals. You would use the information in those documents to provide evidence as to why Mr. Burton is the best teacher.

Document Analysis You should analyze each document very quickly before writing your essay Use SOAPPSTone for written documents Use OPTICS for visual documents

SOAPPSTone Subject Occasion Audience Purpose Point of View Speaker TONE

OPTICS Overview Parts Title Interrelationships Conclusion Source

Point of View You will be asked to show understanding of Point of View in your essay at least twice You not only must say who’s point of view it is but explain why the author has that point of view. Explain thoroughly

Point of View Ex: A document about Mr. Burton being a great teacher or not might be different if it is written by a student who loves history versus a student who hates history. The fact that the student loves history may influence how they feel about Mr. Burton because he teaches history.

Rubric (from WHAP) Thesis Uses all, or all but one document Supports thesis with evidence from the documents Understands the meaning of the documents

Rubric Analyzes bias/POV in 2-3 documents Groups documents in 1, 2, or 3 ways Appropriate additional document

Grouping Documents are grouped by what part of your answer they support. Documents can be included in more than one group.

Grouping Ex: Thesis, Mr. Burton’s class is the best because he is organized, fair, and funny. All documents that are about Mr. Burton being organized would be cited in one paragraph.

Additional Document Usually put in the conclusion paragraph but doesn’t have to be Does not have to be a known document What voice/POV is left out of the given documents? Why do I need that voice?

Additional Document Ex. If all documents about Mr. Burton came from students and principals, but none from parents; then an additional document might be needed to fully explain why Mr. Burton is the best.

Additional Document “To better understand to what extent Mr. Burton is an exceptional teacher, a document expressing the viewpoint of a parent would be beneficial. Parents must also be able to work with teachers to provide the best education for their child.”

Citing Documents in the Essay You will use very simple citation in your essay, not anything formal You can simply put the number/letter of the document in parentheses after you discuss it in your essay. Ex: Mr. Burton’s organization is shown in his binders of lesson plans for each unit (Doc. 3).

The Question

Essay Outline Introduction with thesis Body (use a grouping of documents) Body (a different grouping) Conclusion with additional document

Getting Started Read the question. What is being asked? Do you already have an idea of an answer based on prior knowledge? Read each of the documents thoroughly. SOAPPSTone/OPTICS them. How can you answer the essay question with the document?

Next Step How can you group the documents? What can your thesis statement be? In which statements can you discuss POV? What can an additional document/voice be?

Write Remember your outline. Remember to cite each document. Remember to discuss POV in 2-3 documents. Remember to write about an additional document.

Editing the DBQ Essay Have another student read your essay. With red grading pen mark spelling and grammar errors. In pink highlight the thesis statement. In orange, highlight everytime a document is cited. In blue, highlight POV. In green, highlight where the additional document is discussed. Put a yellow star beside every paragraph that has grouping of documents.