what you need to know about dbqs

8/14/2019 What You Need to Know About DBQs

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DBQ: Document Based

Questions



Document-Based Essay QuestionDocument-Based Essay Question

Put on your "historian" hatPut on your "historian" hat to demonstrate

your ability to analyze source materials

and develop an essay based on those

materials.

Your goal:Your goal: a unified essay that integratesa unified essay that integrates

your analysis of four to ten givenyour analysis of four to ten given

documents with your treatment of thedocuments with your treatment of thetopic.topic.



Comparative topics on theComparative topics on the major themesmajor themes

will provide one of the focuses of the DBQs,

including comparative questions about

different societies in situations of mutualcontact.

The DBQ begins with a mandatory 10-mandatory 10-

minute reading period.minute reading period. Then you'll have 4040minutes to write the essay.minutes to write the essay.

Document-Based Essay QuestionDocument-Based Essay Question



Can you crack the case?Can you crack the case?

The source materials are chosen for two reasons:the informationinformation they convey about the topic andthe perspectiveperspective they offer on other documentsused in the section.

There is no one perfect DBQ answer There is no one perfect DBQ answer ; a varietyof approaches and responses are possibledepending on your ability to understand thedocuments and, ultimately, judge their significance.

Remember:Remember: You'll most fully understand some of the documents when you view them within thewider context of the entire series.



What does it look like?



When writing the document-When writing the document-

based essay, it's important to:based essay, it's important to:• Refer to individual documents within the

framework of the overall topic.

• Use all of the documents.Use all of the documents.• Discuss the materials in reference to thein reference to the

questionquestion -- don't just summarize them.

• Cite documents by naming the author naming the author and/or by naming the document number document number .



• There are no irrelevant or deliberatelymisleading documents.

• It's important that you put your analytic skills to work anddemonstrate that you understandcontext, bias, and frame of context, bias, and frame of referencereference regarding the documents'sources and the authors' points of view.


based essay, keep in mind:based essay, keep in mind:



DBQ Tips:DBQ Tips:

• Group or juxtaposeGroup or juxtapose documents in a variety

of ways (e.g. according to their ideas or

points of view);

• Suggest reasons for similarities or similarities or

differencesdifferences in perspective among the

documents;

• And identify possible biases or biases or inconsistenciesinconsistencies within documents.



• You'll be asked to explain the need for additionalneed for additionaldocumentsdocuments that would help you answer the questionmore completely. You may also have to discussdiscuss

which points of view are missingwhich points of view are missing from the givendocuments.

• Since the DBQ focuses on historical skills within aworld history framework, remember to placeremember to placedocuments chronologically, culturally, anddocuments chronologically, culturally, and

thematically.thematically.• You're not expected You're not expected to know the author or topic of

all the DBQ documents, or to include informationoutside of the documents.


based essay, keep in mind:based essay, keep in mind:

what you need to know about dbqs

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