APUSH DBQ problem?

Test Preparation AP History & Social Sciences
1

Hi, my name’s Mandy, and I’m a high school junior. I’m taking both AP English Language and AP US History at the same time, and I’m having a lot of trouble with writing DBQ’s in AP US History. I tend to write DBQs like I do essays in AP English, and that’s apparently too flowery for my teacher’s taste. Also, according to her, I use too many quotes (probably about 4 from each document- the DBQ had about 5-7 documents attached). I’m used to using quotes to make a point and then backing up the quotes- the way I had to write my graduation paper. So now I’m really confused about how to write DBQ’s, and I really need to know how to write one before the AP exam. How many quotes should I put per document? Where do I need to put quotes, and where don’t I need to put quotes? My teacher told me to write it like a normal essay and then going back to insert the quotes, but I know I don’t have enough time to completely rewrite my DBQ. Is there another way to go about writing it? </p>

Also, on a side note, how do I write a good thesis? I tend to avoid laundry-list thesis (a no-no for English), but anything that’s not laundry-list style isn’t ‘tight’ enough of a thesis for my teacher. Help?</p>

2

I think you use 1 quote from each passage and use that to support your thesis. You can expand upon the quote by summarizing stuff from the doc or with outside knowledge.</p>

3

it depends on who’s reading it since people prefer different things, but you don’t actually need any quotes; you just need to analyze the content of your documents. quotes are unnecessary, so if you like to put them in, do 1 quote per document at the most. more than that gets a bit annoying since you should be highlighting your analysis and pointing out your outside info rather than just spitting back what the documents said.</p>

4

Okay, that sounds good. I have an in-class DBQ tomorrow- I’ll try to cut down on my quotes to one per document. Thanks :)</p>