DBQ Essay Training

1.

CREATE YOUR THESIS: Read the question v

ery carefully. Form a refutable claim that
you can support with relevant evidence that you recall from the event and time period.

2. CONTEXTUALIZATION:. This event did not happen in a vacuum. You score this point by
identifying a historical theme (or themes) of the time period that surround this event and and
play a role in its occurrence.

3. ANALYZING DOCUMENT EVIDENCE: Support your thesis with evidence from ALL, or ALL
but one, of the documents. Evidence is not a summary or description of the document. Use
the following when you analyze the documents:

Explain the authors point of view

Explain the authors purpose
Historical context
Intended audience

At least FOUR of the documents must be analyzed with at least ONE of the bullet-points above
to score the 2nd point that is offered for using the documents.

Document 1

Document 2

Document 3

Document 4

Document 5

Document 6

Document 7

4. REVISE YOUR THESIS. Again, read the question very carefully. Revise your refutable
claim and be sure that you can support this claim with the r elevant evidence you have noted
from your background knowledge AND the documents above. B
e sure to address all parts of
the question.

5. EVIDENCE BEYOND THE DOCUMENTS. Take a careful look at the documents. Is there
another 2 PIECES OF EVIDENCE that you can add? This must be evidence that does not
appear in the documents. Outside evidence will not be scored if it is used for Contextualization

6.

SYNTHESIS:. Extend your argument by explaining the c

onnections between your
analysis of this event and another event . You must a
nalyze the similarity, not just mention
it.
-

A development or event in a different historical period, situation, era, or geographical

area.
A course theme and/or approach to history that is not the focus of the essay.

7. COMBINE all the evidence including document evidence and CREATE YOUR TOPIC
SENTENCES:
Topic sentence 1

Topic sentence 2

Topic sentence 3

Evidence

Evidence

Evidence