Essay Tips - Things to work on



DBQ Tips

1. General Instructions

a. Assignment: You are to write an essay that thoroughly answers the question listed on the attached document. You are to use the knowledge you have gained from class, the textbook reading, and your scholarly source and combine it with the information from the attached documents.

b. Length: The paper should be no longer than three typed pages. If it is any longer I will stop reading.

c. Sources: Go to the library and select one scholarly source that will provide additional insight into the question. Please cite the source parenthetically in your paper using the MLA format. Include a Works Cited page at the end of the essay.

d. The heading of the paper should have the period in the top left hand corner of the page and the page number in the right hand corner. Your name should go on the prewriting page.

Heading example: (notice how there is no title, nor is your name to be on the essay, it will be on the prewriting page)

(Top of page)

Period 6 1

Begin writing here……………………………………………………….

e. Refer to the “Essay Tips” link under Class Documents on my website for additional writing tips.

f. Fill out a prewriting sheet. You can find one on my website under Class Documents “Prewriting Template.” Include your prewriting (handwritten). Staple it to the back of the essay with your name on it

a. Breakdown

b. Brainstorm

c. Outline

g. Grading: You will be graded on the accuracy of your essay, the quality of your argument (thesis) and how well you defend it in the body paragraphs, and your writing skills (spell check, proof read, have your mom take a look)

2. DBQ

a. Weave your analysis of the documents with your knowledge of the material. I cannot stress this point enough. You must demonstrate that you know content about this question outside of what the documents provide.

b. Don’t quote the documents!!!! – Interpret and analyze

c. Don’t refer to document letters when introducing a thought

i. For example, “In document A, the author described how…”

d. Instead you can refer to the document title and/or author to introduce a document…

i. “In an 1860 letter to an abolitionist group, Frederick Douglass stated…”

ii. “Abe Lincoln’s 1860 campaign speech in Hartford detailed his opinions on …”

iii. “In The Last Days of John Brown, an 1859 essay by H.D. Thoreau, the author ….”

iv. Note how the three examples use different language to introduce a document. That is how you’ll want to do it. Your writing gets monotonous if you say each time …In Frederick Douglass’s letter, In Abe Lincoln’s campaign speech, In Thoreau’s essay.

e. When you do refer to a document, once you finish discussing it, in parenthesis put the document letter in the paper as if you are citing it. E.g. (Doc. A)

f. You should refer to all documents in your essay if possible. Skipping one is OK if you cannot reasonably refer to it in the essay.

g. You only need to refer to a document once

h. Smooth incorporation of documents

i. Introduce the document & provide a brief, one sentence summary of the document

ii. Describe how the document relates to the point you wish to make

iii. If you can provide one outside historical factoid from your own knowledge that supports this idea

1. Don’t be shy about dropping names, you are there to impress the reader with what you know

2. This is your voice in the paper, they want to hear it.

iv. Example: In 1862, Frederick Douglass discussed the raid on Harper’s Ferry in his essay John Brown is Super Cool and stated that John Brown sacrificed himself for the freedom of others and this sacrifice superseded any questions of morality related to his methods. Douglass was not alone in this belief. Years earlier, David Walker in his Appeal to the Colored People of the World embraced this same idea when he said that slaves should rise up in violent rebellion against their masters. The violent responses to slavery that Brown engaged in and Douglass and Walker supported would manifest itself in war from 1861 to 1865. And while the war did not begin with the intention of eliminating slavery, by 1862 it became a primary goal with the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation.

i. Students must have a voice in the DBQ. Do not write book reports of the documents and offered no personal analysis.

i. Provide your ideas

ii. Name drop – throw in people/events that have some sort of connection to what you’re discussing

iii. When you do provide your own thoughts, make sure you do not use 1st person. E.g. “I believe that John Brown was a kook.”

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