<p>Yea, about DBQ (document based questions), i was wondering how to do a good DBQ essay. My teacher did not give us any tips on how to write a good essay based on documents. do you guys any tips?</p>
<p>Here are the basics of what I've learned...
1. organize it like you would a normal essay, just use the documents to support what you say.
2. Use lots of related outside information
3. make sure you use the documents to answer the question, not just summarize.</p>
<p>outside information? so lets say we are talking about..War In Iraq. So i can like compare it to the Vietnam war?</p>
<p>you could...but outside info would be more like...examples that aren't necessarily mentioned in the documents...
like...I did a dbq on the second great awakening and women's rights for my midterm a while back- i mentioned small details to support some of what i said like...Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman doctor...umm...Oberlin was one of the (maybe >the< ?) first coed college. things like that...
it should usually be directly related....</p>
<p>this is a generalization of an essay I write.
Background facts + thesis (intro)
topic sentence + 3~5 facts using both outside and inside information + although statement + analysis + conclusion
Summary of thesis + the general significance (conclusion)</p>
<p>One thing you have to make sure you do when citing documents is to not take one person's opinion as a representation of a group's point of view. Make sure to cite the documents correctly and not extrapolate more than they are actually saying. Cite the opinion/facts presented by the document and then in a later sentence or somewhere apart from the citation provide your analysis.</p>
<p>From my classes this year and last, I got the impression that the AP Euro DBQ required a lot less outside knowledge and more analyzation of the sources, while the APUSH DBQ was more oriented around having at least 50% of the essay be outside knowledge. So your strategy may depend on which AP test you're taking.</p>
<p>Or maybe my AP Euro teacher just sucked.</p>