1. Dr. Afxendiou Sachem North High School AP World History and Geography
THE DBQ ESSAY – Again….
Dr. Afxendiou
Sachem North High School
AP World History and Geography

2. Remember…
The DBQ Essay tests if you know how to work like a historian and compose an essay like a historian.
It is not testing what historical knowledge you have on the topic
When you are taking the AP test, you are not going to know a great deal on the topic of the DBQ essay
BUT…

3. BUT…
Do you know how to educate yourself on the topic from the documents (understanding)?
Do you know how to get evidence from the documents to prove your points (thesis)?
Do you know how to organize information (grouping) and present it to others in written form?
Do you know how to evaluate your sources (pov), how valid they are, how trustworthy?
If you were a historian, what other information/documents would you want (additional document) to make a more complete case on your topic?

4. That is what the DBQ expects of you!
Don’t list the documents.
Don’t take chunks of the documents and just mush them together thinking that you are grouping.
Learn from the documents and present that knowledge – and cite the source of your knowledge (doc. 2)

5. The Classical Athens DBQ Re-write
Make sure you have a clear thesis
Make sure each paragraph is about one clear topic (make sure you have a topic sentence and that the sentences that follow provide support and evidence for that topic sentence)
Make sure that each document used is clearly cited
Add at least one POV in each paragraph – that means the SOAPSTone of at least one document
State the need for an additional document at the end of each body paragraph

6. POINT OF VIEW
Explains why this particular person might have this particular opinion. OR
Explains what particular feature (cultural, political) informs the author’s point of view
The point of view is completed by the tone of the document, the intended audience, the occasion, in other words all the information you get from the document using SOAPSTone.

7. POINT OF VIEW How do you get the point of view?“
Answer the question: “Why” did the author said what he/she said?
“Why” includes factors that influenced the author’s position
These factors can be found
In the documents themselves (information in the box – the source)
Through knowledge of author or of what is being said

8. POINT OF VIEW
Factors that help you evaluate the author’s point of view are:
Name, Position, Nationality, Document Date and/or Document Type
Evaluating the reliability of the source - realize that different types of documents were authored to serve different purposes

9. SAMPLE POV
Vasquez, writing about Potosi, the largest silver mine in Spain’s colonial possessions, describes the terrible conditions that Native Americans dealt with in the labor in the mines (doc. 6). Vasquez shows the continuing manipulation of the Native American population by the Spanish. He is obviously a priest like de las Casas, who is sympathetic towards the Indians. And as a priest who has influence he was trying with his writing to affect the position of the Indians positively.

10. ADDITIONAL DOCUMENT
What kinds of information would you like to have to help answer the question better?
You don’t have to name a specific actual document, but you must do two things with this Additional Document:
1. Describe the kind of information you’d like to see in an additional document.
2. Explain of how that information would help a historian answer the question more completely. (“…because it would help” is not an acceptable answer.)
What would you do with such information? What conclusion could you make with “Information x” that you can’t make now?

11. ADDITIONAL DOCUMENT
The best essays ask for an additional document in every body paragraph to supplement the evidence supporting that paragraph’s topic sentence.
You could say: “Historians could better [make what conclusion?] if a document from a [type of source] that dealt with [subject matter] existed.” or
“In order to [describe what conclusion you’d like to be able to draw] historians would need a [kind of document] showing [describe what kind of information desired].”

12. NOW GO RE-WRITE YOUR ESSAY!