 Everything You Need To Know About Writing The DBQ To Succeed In APUSH

 Read the prompt VERY, VERY CAREFULLY.  Make sure you know what it is asking you to do o Are you determining the effectiveness of something? If yes, CLEARLY STATE if it was or was not effective o Comparing and Contrasting? Make sure to do both! o Analyzing? Don’t just list events, describe why they are important and how they relate to other events

 Take 15 minutes to read the documents, summarize them, and list outside info  Documents are in chronological order o They start at the beginning of the time period  Note the author of the document o This can help provide valuable outside info  Confused on a document? o Skip it! o You do NOT need to incorporate every document  If the prompt asks you to determine the effectiveness of a topic….. o Write “effective” or “ineffective” next to each document

 Make sure you have a strong intro paragraph  How long should the essay be? o Depends on the essay topic o NEVER less than 2 body paragraphs o In many cases, at least 3 body paragraphs  Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence that relates to your thesis  Define historical terms! o Cash and Carry, Lend-Lease Act, etc.  When in doubt, use “because”

 Never write, “Document A says the Republican Party opposed World War II in 1940.” o The document says nothing, the author does  Instead, “Many Americans opposed entrance into World War II, even as the war raged on in Europe. The Republican Party platform from 1940 articulated this exact position.”

 Be careful of overgeneralizing o Don’t use “all,” “never,” etc.  Focus on sophisticated vocabulary  Instead of writing: “says,” “states,” “shows,” “feels,” etc… o Use: “demonstrates,” “portrays,” “depicts,” “illustrates,” “symbolizes,” “exemplifies,” “articulates,” etc.  Never, EVER use “I” or “you” o Instead of saying, “As you can see, the causes of World War I were….” write: o “The events that contributed to the outbreak of World War I were”

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