Now wouldn't it be nice if there was a formula for writing a DBQ that scored you maximum points and that got you all the way to five towns? Well, there is, and I'm about to tell you about it, so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked, let's get to it. Now, I'm a 43-year-old bald man, but I'm not too proud to admit that in the last few months, my kids have gotten me into Fortnite, and, you know, I kind of love it.
I mean, to be fair, I love it, but that doesn't mean I'm any good at it because in fact I'm pretty awful. But I bring it up because the process of getting that juicy victory crown, which for me is about as rare as a New York strip on the refrigerated shelf at my grocery store, is similar to getting maximum points on your DBQ. Which is to say, there is no one way to do it. Some folks drop into the hottest spots and start mowing down their enemies with speed, and others just camp in a bush or chill in a car until they're forced out.
I'm not going to tell you which one I am, but you know, don't judge me. It's my journey. What I mean is, people ask me all the time a lot of the same questions, like how many paragraphs does my DBQ need to be?
Do I need a conclusion paragraph? Do I need an intro paragraph? And on and on.
And the answer is that none of these things is required for the DBQ on the national exam. How many paragraphs? As many.
as you need. What about the conclusion paragraph? No conclusion required.
There's no set format for these essays, so write it in whatever way makes sense to you. You want to drop in the middle of things with guns blazing? You do you.
You want to hide in a bunker and reconsider all your life's choices? You do you. But if that's too much freedom, then you're a fucking idiot. for you, and it is for a lot of people, then I'm going to give you a formula to follow, but this is certainly not the only way to get a good score on the DBQ.
But for those of you who want some guidelines, well, you know, here they are. And by the way, I'm not going to teach you in this video how to write all this stuff. That's what this playlist is for right here.
So get your clicky finger out if you need that kind of help. Or if you want that help faster, you can check out my AP essay cram course, which is linked below. Okay.
So paragraph number one, start with two or three sentences of contextualization. Remember, these sentences need to contain specific historical information. They need to be relevant to your prompt. And in that paragraph with your thesis statement, which is your argument in miniature and must be historically defensible. Now, if you've constructed your thesis properly, you're going to have established some categories that will structure the body paragraphs of your essay.
And again, if you don't know how to write such a thesis, then watch this video right here. Anyway, let's say you've established three categories for your argument, and we'll call them social, political, and economic. And if you have three categories in your thesis, that means you're going to have three body paragraphs.
Or if you have two categories, you're going to have two body paragraphs. Remember, your thesis is the roadmap for the rest of your essay, so stick to it and you're going to be just fine. Okay, now moving on to the body paragraphs, here is the formula to follow.
You spill the tea, baby. Topic sentence. evidence analysis.
But Heimler, isn't that the way you taught us to write essay queues? Dang straight it is, but it also works beautifully in building a DBQ paragraph. So start your paragraph with a topic sentence that summarizes everything that's about to follow, and to do this, just steal it from your thesis.
Your thesis said, for example, that some historical development changed social, political, and economic realities in this time period. Again, to be clear, that's not a passable thesis because it's not nearly specific enough, but I'm just giving you an example. Okay, so your first paragraph needs to start with a topic sentence that steals this first category from the thesis.
This historical development change social realities during this period. So this whole paragraph is going to be about social change. And now you need to introduce your evidence and for a DBQ that's going to be your document.
For this example, let's suppose that documents 1, 4, and 7 support the social aspect of this argument. So to introduce the evidence, your next sentence should begin, document 4 says, and then give a brief description of that document in your own words. Not a quotation, your own words. And look, I can hear the collective groans of every AP teacher in our fair land after hearing what I just said.
Documents don't Don't talk, they say. Don't start a sentence with document four says. And look, I agree.
It's not going to be the most elegant historical writing ever produced. But if you're watching this, it's because you're struggling. And so in my eyes, this is probably the best way to make sure that you're actually using the documents for evidence.
So, you know, start your sentences however you want. But this is my recommendation if you're struggling. Then you have to go one step further and analyze the evidence that you just mentioned.
And don't get freaked out. All that means is you have to show how your evidence supports your topic sentence, which in turn is just part of your thesis. So to do this, the next sentence should begin with these words. words, this shows or this demonstrates, and then go on to show how your evidence proves your argument. That last part is so important because it's the.
difference between an essay that describes and an essay that argues, and you'll only get full points for arguing. And after you've completed your first body paragraph, then go on and do the same thing for the second and third body paragraph. And if you want full points, make sure that you include at least four documents in your analysis.
Or if you're feeling saucy, do all seven if you want to shout at that juicy complexity point. But we're not done yet. You still have to source at least two documents and put in some evidence beyond the document.
And again, there's no required location for these. So maybe here in paragraph two, I'm going to source one of these documents and then source another one in paragraph three. And what that looks like is that right after this document, I'm going to say the events in this document are situated in the larger context of, and that's important because, and then for this document, I'm going to source it by saying the audience of this document was X and that suggests, and finally, you need to add in some evidence beyond the document.
This needs to be specific historical evidence that is not mentioned in the documents. It just has to come right out of your brain fold. And you're going to handle that in the same way that you handled the document.
Within your paragraph, you're going to say another piece of evidence related to this event is, and then drop your vocabulary. And then you're going to do the exact. same thing you did with the documents. You already named it.
So now explain it and then analyze it, which again means that you show me how it proves your argument. Now, if you follow that format, you're going to get six out of seven points on your DBQ and the only point accepted here is the complexity point look six out of seven is a fine score and certainly nothing to sneeze at, however, given that there are about a gazillion ways that you can earn this complexity point, probably the most straightforward way to earn it is to stick to the formula I gave you and use all seven documents to support your argument or source four documents instead of two. So follow this formula and you'll find that no matter how how you approach this essay, that victory crown will be yours for the take.
Okay, if you don't know how to write a thesis, then this video is what you should watch next. And you can click here to get my APSA cram course if you want me to walk you through every point on the writing for your course and give you some examples of exactly how to get them all. Hey, I'll catch you on the flip-flop. Imler out. Oh, I'm the greatest Fortnite player that's ever lived.
Oh my gosh.