<p>Why is it neccessary to find the point of view? I don't understand how/if it should be incorperated into the essay.</p>
<p>This is not asking for help on homework, so please don't delete it.</p>
<p>Easy. </p>
<p>You split the documents up into 3 groups (I always do it by region/location).</p>
<p>When you're using your documents in your paragraph (say you're doing China first), you analyze the documents. Analyze the document; say that the Ming scholar thought that silver had a great impact on the Chinese economy or something like that. You should be able to figure out the POV from the document.</p>
<p>is this for AP US? AP Euro?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why is it neccessary to find the point of view? I don't understand how/if it should be incorperated into the essay.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Think of how when history is written, there is always some sort of inherent bias in the words chosen. Do you think a book detailing the history of the Civil War will cover Sherman's March in the same way if it was written by an author from Georgia and one from Vermont?</p>
<p>Do you think British textbooks cover the Revolutionary War in the same manner US textbooks do? It's an important skill to be able to identify bias in writings. This isn't only true in history, but in many other fields as well. Often times, people have vested interests in interpreting their data a certain way, and though they won't explicitly state it, you need to be able to elucidate that information from the context of their writings so you aren't swindled into believing whatever you read.</p>
<p>Haha, i have to do POV for Pre-AP World.
I usually write about any biases/beliefs that influenced the document.</p>
<p>i guess you are talking about AP History.</p>
<p>anyways the biggest pitfal with regards to DBQ's is that a majority of kids will try to organize their essays around the documents. they will often read all of the documents and then regurgitate what the documents said. if you're lucky you'll get a 4 or 5 out of 9 on the essay on the actual AP test. however, if your teacher is as big as a hard as as mine is, then taking this approach will get you a 1. (not joking. teacher gave kids 1's and 2's for referring to documents as Document A, B, C, etc.)</p>
<p>the proper strategy is to read the prompt. think about the relevant details that you will need to include in your introduction. introductions are key to history papers and are often lengthy since they have to put the essay into context, define key terms, and articulate your thesis. once you've thought about the context of the question start thinking about your what your thesis will be. make sure that it completely answers the prompt. for example, if the prompt asks you to "explain an issue and say to what extent the issue has affect such and such." make sure that you explain why whatever occurred and make sure to discuss the extent of its impact on such and such. once you've done this, think about what the main areas/body paragraphs will be. after you've done this then look at the documents and see which ones you can fit in your introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion. think of writing a DBQ as synthesizing the information you already have with new information. also, try to use as many documents as possible. (make sure to do a good job too.) AP graders are impressed by students who can effectively synthesize information and use brand new information to illustrate a point.</p>
<p>if you take this approach it'll be much easier to understand what each document means since you'll know what you want them to mean, if that makes sense. basically, you'll be able to better understand what you need to look for in documents that support your claims.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why is it neccessary to find the point of view? I don't understand how/if it should be incorperated into the essay.
[/quote]
you don't need to discuss sources in the essay, since the AP graders are familiar with the sources already; you only need to reference them. the best way to reference them is to just referenece the title of the publication, author, etc. do not reference them as Source A, B, C.</p>
<p>Ermm, you might be talking about another class but I'm talking about AP World and no DBQ for AP World asks anything like that ^ </p>
<p>My instruction however came from my AP World teacher who is actually one of the AP World essay graders. It is fine to reference them as Document 1, 2, 3 etc. and it's important to reference what the author is (not his name, but his position/occupation/whatever it lists).</p>
<p>DBQ's in APUSH will be the death of me!!! i really hate those things.</p>
<p>I'm in AP Euro. It sucks because we talked one day for 20 minutes about DBQ's (most of that time was 1 girl arguing about the topic & the teacher saying how she has never seen an AP test) and now it is 1/2 of our final.</p>
<p>I think I understand it better, but I really am bad at writing the thesis. I can do it for any other topic, but for some reason, I'm having trouble with the history ones. I was told that I need to introduce the groupings I made, but when I do, I feel like I am writing like a kid in elementary school.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm in AP Euro. It sucks because we talked one day for 20 minutes about DBQ's (most of that time was 1 girl arguing about the topic & the teacher saying how she has never seen an AP test) and now it is 1/2 of our final.
[/quote]
ehhh that's not that bad. last year, we had to do inclass DBQ's every other week to prepare for the AP USH exam. worked out pretty well though since most kids got 5's.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think I understand it better, but I really am bad at writing the thesis. I can do it for any other topic, but for some reason, I'm having trouble with the history ones. I was told that I need to introduce the groupings I made, but when I do, I feel like I am writing like a kid in elementary school.
[/quote]
think about your thesis as being a one or two sentence, short answer to the prompt. the thesis is literally just the answer to the question without any specific details. the purpose of the rest of the paper is to explain how you came up with your thesis, since not all readers will necessarily agree with the answer you have come up with.</p>
<p>and yea there's a big difference between writing english essays and history essays. in english it's more about how you say your ideas; however, in history, your ideas are much more importan than your creativity since writing history papers is about knowledge not art.</p>