1. DBQ
D ocument
B ased
Q uestion 1

2. Preview the DBQ
Read the Historical Context section. It gives a basic introduction to the DBQ.
Read the Task section. It states the questions that must be answered.
Number the Questions that must be answered in the essay.
Circle the number of Documents needed to be included in the essay. 2

3. Scaffolding Questions (Documents)
Steps to Writing a DBQ
Scaffolding Questions (Documents)
Outline
Essay 3

4. Parts of the D.B.Q.
Essay Question - This is the actual question that must be answered in essay format by using the documents and outside information. It contains separate smaller tasks that make it easier to answer.
Scaffolding questions - These are questions related to the documents. Answering them helps students understand the primary sources related to the essay question. Every document will have at least one scaffolding question.
Outline- This is the general framework for organizing the essay.

5. Scaffolding Questions All scaffolding questions must be answered first in order to help give insight into the essay question
Carefully look at each scaffolding question.
If it is some sort of text, read it carefully more than once. 5

6. Tips on Creating an Outline
The outline is a blueprint for you essay.
The outline should be a short description. Do not add too many details.
3. Follow standard outline form. 6

7. How to Organize Your Outline/Essay
In your outline/essay, each task question gets its own body paragraph. (Min of 2)
In your outline, each new paragraph has a new Roman Numeral.
In your outline/essay, you should combine documents that have similar themes into one body paragraph.
In your outline/essay, each body paragraph gets its own topic sentence to introduce the main idea of the paragraph.
Every document should come with TOD! 7

8. Essay Writing in Social Studies
All social studies essays have a minimum of four paragraphs.
Most have more.
These include an introduction, a body (made up of two or more paragraphs), and a conclusion.

9. Never use first person
First person can be recognized by the words I, me, myself and mine.
Be careful! There is also first person plural.
This can be recognized by the words us, we, our, and ours.
For example the phrase “I am going to write about …” must never appear in any essay
Never use second person either
Second person can be recognized by the words you, your and yours.
For example the phrase “You will read about…” must never appear in any essay.
Always write in third person unless your teacher tells you to do otherwise
Third person can be recognized by the words he, she, him, her, his, hers, they, them, their, theirs and it.
Example: “He believed that the North needed to enter the war in order to keep the Union together.”
Using a person’s name is also writing in third person.

10. Examples: w/o (without), b/c (because).
Also keep in mind that the final product of a D.B.Q. is a formal essay and so there should be no abbreviations.
While it is fine to write “The U.S. Constitution…” It is not acceptable to use ‘text messaging’ types of spelling or shortened versions of other words.
Examples: w/o (without), b/c (because).
Although two or more documents should be discussed in a paragraph (as indicated in the outline), never discuss more than one document in a sentence.

11. The Essay Question Look at the tasks of the essay question.
Determine how many parts it has. This will indicate how many paragraphs should be in the body of your essay.
If the question requires three tasks, it is likely that there will be at least three paragraphs in the body.

12. If the essay question were the following:
Explain some of the hardships that were faced by the settlers moving westward in the 1840’s.
Be sure to include:
Conditions related to the wagon trains
Climate related difficulties
Encounters with the American Indians
It is likely that there will be three paragraphs in the body of the essay.

13. The Statement of Theme
At this point it will be necessary to write a statement of theme.
A statement of theme is a compound sentence that takes in all the major ideas of the essay.
It appears anywhere in the first paragraph.
Make sure that the statement of theme incorporates the concepts contained in the essay question.
What appears in your introduction can be explored in the rest of the essay.

14. Using the example from the earlier slide a statement of theme might look like this:
People moving west on the frontier in the 1840’s experienced many challenges that included difficulties with the wagons, weather, and the American Indians.

15. A sample outline might also look like this:
Introduction
A. Paraphrase historical context
B. Task I
C. Task II
Body
Task I- Topic Sentence\
1. Example (outside information)
2. Document Support (if available)
3. Example (outside information)
4. Document Support (if available)
B. Task II- Topic Sentence
III. Conclusion
A. Restate the main ideas of the essay
B. General statement