<p>HOW DO YOU ANALYZE A DOCUMENT IN YOUR DBQ WELL ENOUGH TO GET A 7-9 SCORE?
I need to write a DBQ during break, which really suks, and I have no ideas on how to "asses the motivations and directions of american foreign policy between 1776 to 1801" </p>
<p>WHAT DOES THE QUESTION EVEN MEAN?</p>
<p>Why did the US take the direction they did regarding their foreign policy during the specified time period? What did they do? </p>
<p>I could help you, but I'm a little rusty. I haven't taken AP US History since last year.</p>
<p>hmmm...thanks dubblyu, I'll do some research on the topic because I honestly have not read the chapter, it's too boring</p>
<p>The excellent part about DBQ's is even if you know no outside information you can still get a 9. My teacher gave me a 9 on my last one and is an AP reader and it was on the Salem Witch Trials which we had never studied. My main process for DBQ's is to jot down a really brief one sentence note for each and then group into political, economic, religious, military, and social. Any group that has 3+ documents should have a full paragraph in the essay. Make sure to analyze bias because otherwise you can get hit hard. When it comes to your thesis, make sure you formally state all of your groupings and I find that I do better when I use "although" or "despite" in the thesis (this hasn't been proven). Good luck.</p>
<p>^ OMG, what school do you go to... your teacher sounds EXACTLY like mine...</p>
<p>My strategy:</p>
<p>1.) Understand the topic - "asses the motivations and directions of american foreign policy between 1776 to 1801" - what exactly went on in US foreign policy between independence and 1801?- brainstorm some ideas, particularly, why was 1801 picked as the latest time? </p>
<p>2.) Read all the documents and write keywords next to each</p>
<p>3.) Figure out how these keywords can be used to create three main ideas or paragraphs- perhaps they can form 2 paragraphs on motivation and 1 paragraph on directions or perhaps 1 paragraph each on a specific year that is important (in each paragraph you will discuss both motivations and directions)</p>
<p>4.) Formulate key overall idea of your essay - this will be your thesis</p>
<p>5.) Write a brief outline- such as </p>
<pre><code> I. Intro- this will include a 'tie-in' - perhaps of some current event or other outside info you can tie in to your overall essay, thesis
II. Main idea 1 - write letters of documents you will use for main idea 1
III. Main idea 2 - write letters of docs used for main idea 2
IV. Main idea 3 - write letters of documents used in paragraph of main idea 3
V. Conclusion - restate thesis (can be same), refer to tie in
</code></pre>
<p>6.) Draft your essay, leaving an extra line or two blank after your thesis (this may have changed after the entire essay has been written)</p>
<p>I generally did well on these DBQs with this strategy, getting mainly 9s.</p>
<p>How</a> to Write a DBQ</p>
<p>Remeber, for each DBQ, use at least 6 docs, more than nesseacary. </p>
<p>"asses the motivations and directions of american foreign policy between 1776 to 1801"</p>
<p>Well, you have to establish WHAT to write, asses "motivations" and "directions". That is two paragraphs there, useing 3 docs per paragraph, so a doc per point.</p>
<p>So asses the motivaitons, you need to identity the motivations and see whether they are good or not, and how, and such.. (you need the docs)</p>
<p>Then do the same thing for direction</p>
<p>Thanks for the help guys...
But I still got some questions about the thesis...
What exactly are teachers looking for in a good thesis? What does it mean by a brief outline of your essay in the thesis? are you supposed to give away all the specific info or just general info?</p>
<p>can anyone answer my last question please? thank you</p>
<p>I think by brief outline in your thesis it means to address the groupings you will use by name therefore making the groups clearly defined. </p>
<p>@powerbomb: I go to an all-girls school in DE. I'm thinking that since my teacher is an AP reader that this is a popular formula.</p>
<p>Thesis--it's supposed to be analytical, shows you've thought about the subject, break it down into your own ideas/thoughts/words, organize topics ..</p>
<p>brief outline--you should discuss what main topics you will bring up later in the subject. Like kinda incorporate it into one of your sentences. ...for example: american foreign policy from blah to blah was motivated by political, economic, and military goals. (probably a more ..complex one but just to give you the general idea) and then that shows you'll talk about political goals and how that influenced american for. pol. in your first body paragraph...economic goals in your second..etc.</p>
<p>raiderade--we did the salem witch trials too! That was really really helpful.</p>
<p>Ohhh...ok, thanks for the help guys, really helpful....Merry Christmas!</p>
<p>Hey guys, I just want to seriously THANK YOU all, because you helped me with this DBQ and I managed to get a 7 (maybe to some of you this may not be too good, but to me it's great)
Thank you.</p>
<p>I know this is over now, but if anyone wants to see an example of a 9-quality thesis, PM me. I took AP USH last year and got a 5. Thesis's were my "thing", so to speak.</p>
<p>And my DBQ method is </p>
<p>A: look at time period mentioned in question w/o reading question (so I don't get tunnel vision)
B: Write down everything I assosciate with said time period
C: Read question
D: Write thesis
E: Read docs, write whether they agree or disagree with prompt, and see which apply to your thesis
F: Create outline, referring back to docs and the initial list of things you assosciate with the time period to form your supports
G: Write!</p>
<p>The number of docs used does not matter. They'd rather see you analyze four docs than mention nine.</p>
<p>This method comes from my AP USH teacher, who's experienced as both a teacher and an AP grader. Parts A and B are also really helpful for Art History essays, btw. The outside information can make the difference between an 8 and a 9.</p>
<p>^Sorry, but the number of docs DOES matter. If you don't analyze the majority in your paper (aka 7/12) you can't get above a 5 because you haven't fulfilled the 6 core points. What they don't want is listing documents and trying to "fit them in" when they don't quite work.</p>
<p>Simply summarizing the documents (while mentioning most individually somewhere) should be good enough for a 6. Three 6's and 60/80 ---> solid 5 on the AP test.</p>