Transcript Presentation on DBQ of the West - apusmiskinis2012-2013

DBQ: The West
• 1. Thesis
• 2. Topic Sentences
• 4. Thematic Organization of Body
Paragraphs
• 5. Documents
• 6. Outside Information
• 7. Style
I. Thesis
• A. Must address ENTIRE Prompt, must be specific
• [The following are student examples from last year]
– Good: “From 1840 to 1890, settlers flooded the west for political
or economic reasons, but all of these causes for settlement and
development stemmed from the natural environment of the
West”
– Good: “The West was settled by those seeking to exploit its
natural resources, but the Federal Government facilitated that
exploitation of those resources for rich and poor alike through
legislation and military force.”
– OK: “The development of the West and the lives of those who
lived there was greatly affected by the scarcity of resources,
abundance of minerals, and the racism of the mid to late 1800s”
– OK: “The want to make money from the environment was the
key contributing factor in the development of the West because
the abundant resources created incentive to go, even though the
landscape was harsh and unmanageable, and the land belonged
to the Native Americans.”
I. Thesis
– Thesis lacking sophistication, thesis vague, or
not addressing both parts of the prompt
• Bad: “The natural environment of the West was
important because it created economic incentive,
but was not as important as other factors.”
• Bad: “The natural environment of the West was
hugely, enormously, gigantically, ginormously
important, and other factors, like racism and
economic incentive were less important for those
settled and already lived there.”
I. Thesis
• “Paper lacks direction”
– Remember, the argument of the DBQ response IS the
DBQ response. If the reader can’t see a clear
argument that is present throughout the paper, the
DBQ is lacking direction.
• To fix this:
– Have a clear thesis
– Argue it throughout the body paragraphs using
thematically organized examples
I. Thesis
• Beware of “individual motivation”
– The point of a DBQ is to make generalizations
grounded in evidence. Connect any
“individual” motives to the context (political,
economic, religious, etc.)
II. Strong Topic Sentences
• A strong topic sentence:
– Introduces the topic of the paragraph
– Introduces the argument of the paragraph
Good: The natural resources in the West were
reason enough for people to want to leave the
urban population centers in the East.
Good: Contrary to government propaganda, the
entire west was not the “promised land” some
claimed it to be.
II. Strong Topic Sentences
Bad: Buffalo were hugely important in the West.
Bad: Mining was a significant economic activity
that drew people to the west [paragraph then
discusses racism].
Bad: The natural environment impacted the
lives of many people.
III. Body paragraphs
• Organize body paragraphs
thematically/topically.
• Good: paragraph devoted to natural
environment providing economic incentive.
• Bad: paragraph devoted to politics, racism,
technology, manifest destiny, rugged
individualism, helicopters
IV. Documents
• A. Use most documents [effectively]
– 7/9 recommended
IV. Documents
•
B. Incorporate documents thematically
– Good: Paragraph on racism negatively defining community in the West, Docs D,
H, B, maybe even I.
– Good: Paragraph on natural environment creating economic incentive, Docs B,
A, H, E.
– Good: Paragraph on natural environment destabilizing communities, A, E, I
– Good: Paragraph on religion shaping communities in the West, D, B and C(!)
– Bad: US government had a plan to populate the west, B, F
– Bad: Natural environment made life hard, A, E and I
IV. Documents
• Bad: US government had a plan to
populate the west, B, F
• Bad: Natural environment made life hard,
A, E and I
V. Outside Information
• Should use at least as much O.I. as docs
• Docs should be incorporated into O.I.
– Good: Paragraph on religion shaping communities in
the West, D (Anti-Catholicism, Church holding
Hispanic Community together), B (Heavily Protestant)
and C (Mormons settled West for almost solely
religious reasons)
– Good: Paragraph on racism negatively defining
community in the West Docs D (White Caps), H
(wounded knee, Dawes Act), B (Mexican War),
maybe even I (Black cowboys).
V. Outside Information
• Bad: Not connecting docs to outside
information! I.e., the Laundry List or
“listing”!
• Laundry List:
– simply “explaining” (read: describing)
documents one after another.
– Usually docs are not related to outside info.
– Author fails to establish greater significance.
VI. Style
• Avoid overusing parentheses
• Words spelled incorrectly
• Avoid “huge,” “greatly impacted,” “greatly
affected,” “immense”
• Passive voice is to be avoided
• Write clearly [eschew obfuscation]
• No stunted paragraphs
• NEVER use dropped quotations as topic
sentences (or ever, for that matter).
•Questions?