DBQ: The West

1. Thesis 2. Topic Sentences 4. Thematic Organization of Body Paragraphs 5. Documents 6. Outside Information 7. Style

I. Thesis A. Must address ENTIRE Prompt, must be specific [The following are student examples from last year] –Good: “From 1840 to 1890, settlers flooded the west for political or economic reasons, but all of these causes for settlement and development stemmed from the natural environment of the West” –Good: “The West was settled by those seeking to exploit its natural resources, but the Federal Government facilitated that exploitation of those resources for rich and poor alike through legislation and military force.” –OK: “The development of the West and the lives of those who lived there was greatly affected by the scarcity of resources, abundance of minerals, and the racism of the mid to late 1800s” –OK: “The want to make money from the environment was the key contributing factor in the development of the West because the abundant resources created incentive to go, even though the landscape was harsh and unmanageable, and the land belonged to the Native Americans.”

I. Thesis –Thesis lacking sophistication, thesis vague, or not addressing both parts of the prompt Bad: “The natural environment of the West was important because it created economic incentive, but was not as important as other factors.” Bad: “The natural environment of the West was hugely, enormously, gigantically, ginormously important, and other factors, like racism and economic incentive were less important for those settled and already lived there.”

I. Thesis “Paper lacks direction” –Remember, the argument of the DBQ response IS the DBQ response. If the reader can’t see a clear argument that is present throughout the paper, the DBQ is lacking direction. To fix this: –Have a clear thesis –Argue it throughout the body paragraphs using thematically organized examples

I. Thesis Beware of “individual motivation” –The point of a DBQ is to make generalizations grounded in evidence. Connect any “individual” motives to the context (political, economic, religious, etc.)

II. Strong Topic Sentences A strong topic sentence: –Introduces the topic of the paragraph –Introduces the argument of the paragraph Good: The natural resources in the West were reason enough for people to want to leave the urban population centers in the East. Good: Contrary to government propaganda, the entire west was not the “promised land” some claimed it to be.

II. Strong Topic Sentences Bad: Buffalo were hugely important in the West. Bad: Mining was a significant economic activity that drew people to the west [paragraph then discusses racism]. Bad: The natural environment impacted the lives of many people.

III. Body paragraphs Organize body paragraphs thematically/topically. Good: paragraph devoted to natural environment providing economic incentive. Bad: paragraph devoted to politics, racism, technology, manifest destiny, rugged individualism, helicopters

IV. Documents A. Use most documents [effectively] –7/9 recommended

IV. Documents B. Incorporate documents thematically –Good: Paragraph on racism negatively defining community in the West, Docs D, H, B, maybe even I. –Good: Paragraph on natural environment creating economic incentive, Docs B, A, H, E. –Good: Paragraph on natural environment destabilizing communities, A, E, I –Good: Paragraph on religion shaping communities in the West, D, B and C(!) –Bad: US government had a plan to populate the west, B, F –Bad: Natural environment made life hard, A, E and I

IV. Documents Bad: US government had a plan to populate the west, B, F Bad: Natural environment made life hard, A, E and I

V. Outside Information Should use at least as much O.I. as docs Docs should be incorporated into O.I. –Good: Paragraph on religion shaping communities in the West, D (Anti-Catholicism, Church holding Hispanic Community together), B (Heavily Protestant) and C (Mormons settled West for almost solely religious reasons) –Good: Paragraph on racism negatively defining community in the West Docs D (White Caps), H (wounded knee, Dawes Act), B (Mexican War), maybe even I (Black cowboys).

V. Outside Information Bad: Not connecting docs to outside information! I.e., the Laundry List or “listing”! Laundry List: –simply “explaining” (read: describing) documents one after another. –Usually docs are not related to outside info. –Author fails to establish greater significance.

VI. Style Avoid overusing parentheses Words spelled incorrectly Avoid “huge,” “greatly impacted,” “greatly affected,” “immense” Passive voice is to be avoided Write clearly [eschew obfuscation] No stunted paragraphs NEVER use dropped quotations as topic sentences (or ever, for that matter).

Questions?Questions?