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 AP History Essay and DBQ writing

AP History Scoring Rubrics for Essays:

Do your Best CHAMP-Evaluating Documents

Point of view on the DBQ

How to read a primary source

Thesis Development

Writing Essays

Prompts to know!!

 CHAMP!

For the DBQ’s ONLY  make sure for EVERY document you do the ONE of the following:

CH-  Historical Context

A-     Audience

M-motive

P-  Point of View

European History: Point of View on the DBQ

Core-Scoring Guide for the Document-Based Question

As of 2000, the document-based question (DBQ) is scored using the "core-scoring" method. AP European History readers and ETS staff have been working together to improve and ensure scoring consistency for the DBQ. As part of these ongoing efforts, studies were conducted in 1998 and 1999 using a method called core-scoring. The core score is the number of points awarded, from 1 to 6, for basic competence in the skills identified in the current rubric-those historical skills that the AP European History Development Committee and the readers deem appropriate. If a core score of 6 is achieved, a student may earn expanded score points-0 to 3-from the expanded core area for excelling in any of the skills. A student must earn 6 points in the basic core area before earning points in the expanded core area. Both the 1998 and 1999 studies showed that when the core-scoring method was used there was significant improvement in reader agreement. The readers who participated in both studies agreed that the core-scoring method was fairer to the students, a finding confirmed by results of the studies.

POINT OF VIEW

The crucial skill teachers and readers are looking for in a student's approach to documents is the awareness that documents are not statements of facts, but descriptions, interpretations, or opinions of events and developments made by particular people in particular places at particular times, and often for specific reasons. Too often, students write essays in which they take the documents at face value. Instead, students should be applying critical thinking skills to documents, evaluating whether they are likely to be accurate and complete, and in what ways the author of the document may be revealing bias.

How can students demonstrate awareness of POV?
The readers of the 2000 AP European History DBQs looked for POV in five distinct ways. The following examples refer to the 2000 DBQ on the purposes served by European rituals and festivals.

Attribution:
This is the minimal approach to POV. When students cite the authors of the documents by name or position, they are indicating that they understand that this is a particular person's expression rather than a statement of fact. Students need to provide consistent attribution throughout their essays, meaning all or most documents should be attributed. Attribution means using the name of the author of a document or something about the author given in the document.

Examples of attribution are:    "John Taylor, an English writer, said..."
"A Dominican monk in Florence described..."

Authorial point of view:
Students show awareness that the gender, occupation, class, religion, nationality, political position, or ethnic identity of the author may well have influenced the views that are expressed.
For example:     "Baltasar Rusow, as a Lutheran pastor, was naturally upset by the celebration of a Saint's Day since Lutherans don't venerate saints."

Reliability and accuracy of source:
Students critically examine a source for its reliability and accuracy by questioning whether the author of the document would be in a position to be accurate and/or would likely be telling the truth. The student can also evaluate the type of source, e.g., a letter or official report, showing an understanding that different types of sources vary in their probable reliability.

For example:      "R. Lassels's report of the Carnival celebrations in Italy is probably accurate because as an outside observer, he is more objective."

"R. Lassels's report of the Carnival celebrations in Italy is probably inaccurate because as an outside observer, he would not fully understand local customs."

"Mrs. Gaskell writes about riding stang in a private letter, which she probably would not write about in the same way in her published works."

Tone or intent of the author:
Students examine the text of a document to determine its tone (e.g., satire, irony, indirect political commentary) or the intent of the author. This may be particularly useful for visual documents.

For example:    "Brueghel painted The Battle Between Carnival and Lent to warn the people that their love of celebrating was overwhelming their religious observance of Lent."

Grouping of documents by author:
When students group the documents by type of author, they are showing awareness that certain types of authors, simply by the nature of their authorship, will express similar views or consider events in a similar light. In the 2000 DBQ, there were three such groups of authors: government officials, clergy, and writers.

Is this emphasis on POV new?
No. Every DBQ has required students to address POV, and for many years this instruction has been emphasized in the directions for the DBQ. But its importance is more obvious now, because showing awareness of POV in an essay is required as one of the 6 basic core points.

HOW TO READ A PRIMARY SOURCE

Good reading is about asking questions of your sources. Keep the following in mind when reading primary sources. Even if you believe you can't arrive at the answers, imagining possible answers will aid your comprehension. Reading primary sources requires that you use your historical imagination. This process is all about your willingness and ability to ask questions of the material, imagine possible answers, and explain your reasoning.

I. Evaluating primary source texts: I've developed an acronym that may help guide your evaluation of primary source texts: MAPER.

• Motives and goals of the author
• Argument and strategy she or he uses to achieve those goals
• Presuppositions and values (in the text, and our own)
• Epistemology (evaluating truth content)
• Relate to other texts (compare and contrast)

Motives

• Who is the author and what is her or his place in society (explain why you are justified in thinking so)? What could or might it be, based on the text, and why?
• What is at stake for the author in this text? Why do you think she or he wrote it? What evidence in the text tells you this?
• Does the author have a thesis? What -- in one sentence -- is that thesis?

Argument

• How does the text make its case? What is its strategy for accomplishing its goal? How does it carry out this strategy?
• What is the intended audience of the text? How might this influence its rhetorical strategy? Cite specific examples.
• What arguments or concerns does the author respond to that are not clearly stated? Provide at least one example of a point at which the author seems to be refuting a position never clearly stated. Explain what you think this position may be in detail, and why you think it.
• Do you think the author is credible and reliable? Use at least one specific example to explain why. Make sure to explain the principle of rhetoric or logic that makes this passage credible.

Presuppositions

• How do the ideas and values in the source differ from the ideas and values of our age? Offer two specific examples.
• What presumptions and preconceptions do we as readers bring to bear on this text? For instance, what portions of the text might we find objectionable, but which contemporaries might have found acceptable. State the values we hold on that subject, and the values expressed in the text. Cite at least one specific example.
• How might the difference between our values and the values of the author influence the way we understand the text? Explain how such a difference in values might lead us to mis-interpret the text, or understand it in a way contemporaries would not have. Offer at least one specific example.

Epistemology

• How might this text support one of the arguments found in secondary sources we've read? Choose a paragraph anywhere in a secondary source we've read, state where this text might be an appropriate footnote (cite page and paragraph), and explain why.
• What kinds of information does this text reveal that it does not seemed concerned with revealing? (In other words, what does it tell us without knowing it's telling us?)
• Offer one claim from the text which is the author's interpretation. Now offer one example of a historical "fact" (something that is absolutely indisputable) that we can learn from this text (this need not be the author's words).

Relate: Now choose another of the readings, and compare the two, answering these questions:

• What patterns or ideas are repeated throughout the readings?
• What major differences appear in them?
• Which do you find more reliable and credible?

II. Here are some additional concepts that will help you evaluate primary source texts:

• Texts and documents, authors and creators: You'll see these phrases a lot. I use the first two and the last two as synonyms. Texts are historical documents, authors their creators, and vice versa. "Texts" and "authors" are often used when discussing literature, while "documents" and "creators" are more familiar to historians.
• Evaluating the veracity (truthfulness) of texts: For the rest of this discussion, consider the example of a soldier who committed atrocities against non-combatants during wartime. Later in his life, he writes a memoir that neglects to mention his role in these atrocities, and may in fact blame them on someone else. Knowing the soldier's possible motive, we would be right to question the veracity of his account.
• The credible vs. the reliable text:

Reliability refers to our ability to trust the consistency of the author's account of the truth. A reliable text displays a pattern of verifiable truth-telling that tends to render the unverifiable parts of the text true. For instance, the soldier above may prove to be utterly reliable in detailing the campaigns he participated in during the war, as evidence by corroborating records. The only gap in his reliability may be the omission of details about the atrocities he committed.

Credibility refers to our ability to trust the author's account of the truth on the basis of her or his tone and reliability. An author who is inconsistently truthful -- such as the soldier in the example above -- loses credibility. There are many other ways authors undermine their credibility. Most frequently, they convey in their tone that they are not neutral (see below). For example, the soldier above may intersperse throughout his reliable account of campaign details vehement and racist attacks against his old enemy. Such attacks signal readers that he may have an interest in not portraying the past accurately, and hence may undermine his credibility, regardless of his reliability.

An author who seems quite credible may be utterly unreliable. The author who takes a measured, reasoned tone and anticipates counter-arguments may seem to be very credible, when in fact he presents us with complete balderdash. Similarly, a reliable author may not always seem credible. It should also be clear that individual texts themselves may have portions that are more reliable and credible than others.

• The objective vs. the neutral text: We often wonder if the author of a text has an "ax to grind" which might render her or his words unreliable.

Neutrality refers to the stake an author has in a text. In the example of the soldier who committed wartime atrocities, the author seems to have had a considerable stake in his memoir, which was the expunge his own guilt. In an utterly neutral document, the creator is not aware that she or he has any special stake in the construction and content of the document. Very few texts are ever completely neutral. People generally do not go to the trouble to record their thoughts unless they have a purpose or design which renders them invested in the process of creating the text. Some historical texts, such as birth records, may appear to be more neutral than others, because their creators seem to have had less of a stake in creating them. (For instance, the county clerk who signed several thousand birth certificates likely had less of a stake in creating an individual birth certificate than did a celebrity recording her life in a diary for future publication as a memoir.)

Objectivity refers to an author's ability to convey the truth free of underlying values, cultural presuppositions, and biases. Many scholars argue that no text is or ever can be completely objective, for all texts are the products of the culture in which their authors lived. Many authors pretend to objectivity when they might better seek for neutrality. The author who claims to be free of bias and presupposition should be treated with suspicion: no one is free of their values. The credible author acknowledges and expresses those values so that they may accounted for in the text where they appear.

• Epistemology: a fancy word for a straight-forward concept. "Epistemology" is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of knowledge. How do you know what you know? What is the truth, and how is it determined? For historians who read primary sources, the question becomes: what can I know of the past based on this text, how sure can I be about it, and how do I know these things?

This can be an extremely difficult question. Ultimately, we cannot know anything with complete assurance, because even our senses may fail us. Yet we can conclude, with reasonable accuracy, that some things are more likely to be true than others (for instance, it is more likely that the sun will rise tomorrow than that a human will learn to fly without wings or other support). Your task as a historian is to make and justify decisions about the relative veracity of historical texts, and portions of them. To do this, you need a solid command of the principles of sound reasoning.

Advanced Placement History

WRITING HISTORICAL ESSAYS

GENERAL RULES

1. A good essay does more than "rattle off" facts. It reveals an understanding of the general
    principles of the "big picture" of history. The best essays "weave" an understanding of content
    with some critical analysis.

2. Plan your essay! Brainstorm and list facts pertaining to the question. Then, write a working
    outline before you begin the writing process. An essay will be judged on the strength of the
    thesis, the quality of historical argument, and the evidence used (correctly) to support the
    thesis. Take some time to "pre-write", to plan your strategy. Follow the steps listed below.

3. Generally, the five paragraph essay is expected; however, some questions do not lend
    themselves to that format. Look for key words in the question, and the directive verbs found in
    the question.

SEVEN STEPS IN WRITING AN ESSAY

1. Analyze the Question

    a. Without a clear understanding of the question, you cannot write an adequate answer. Be sure
        to you address all "tasks" in the question. Pay attention to every word in the question.

    b. Understand the directive terms: discuss, explain, evaluate, analyze, etc. (See Reverse)

    c. All questions have one thing in common: they demand judgment about the historical evidence.
        A question is never satisfactorily answered by simply reporting information. If you think that
        you can write an essay without making some judgment on the issue, you have not
          understood the question.

    d. Be sure to include all aspects of the question.

2. Collect and Sort Information

    a. Once you understand the question, "brainstorm" what you know about the topic. List
        everything; then categorize it in some meaningful way (PERSIA, PDESCI, etc.).

    b. Notetaking/Outlining is important in the pre-writing stage. It focuses attention on possible
        ways to organize material.

    c. Make a "working thesis", a general answer to the question.

    d. Also, anticipate counterarguments. Consider arguments that are against your thesis, not to
        prove them, but to show you are award of opposing viewpoints. The strongest essays
        confront conflicting evidence. Include this in your essay somewhere.

3. Develop a Thesis

    a. Thesis: Your brief answer to the question given. It generally explains why or how something
        happened. Your thesis should take a stand on an issue or historical problem.

    b. A thesis makes an assertion that a reasonable person could disagree with. It is your "claim"
        statement, what you claim to be true.

    c. A thesis requires some judgment and interpretation of evidence. Everything that comes after
        your thesis should support the thesis. Develop your thesis throughout your essay. However,
        include it in your introductory paragraph: tell the reader so he/she can evaluate your
        arguments as they read your essay.

    d. For a thesis to be "well-developed", it should have some power to explain the issues in
        question. It should be "focused" on the way you plan to answer the question. Try to make
        your thesis "measurable". You can, then, show analytical ability.

    e. Here is a somewhat formulaic approach to constructing a thesis:

        -A "concessive" clause: "although such and such"…if you do not concede something, you will
         appear unreasonable, or unaware of another side of the issue.

        -The "main" clause: the thing you will attempt to prove in your essay.

        -The "because" clause: this will force you to summarize supporting arguments (categories).

4. Write the Introduction

    a. Include relevant background information, i.e., time and place (setting) are usually important to
        establish.

    b. DEFINE your key terms, those that are vague or controversial (effective, liberal,
        revolutionary, etc.)

    c. Include your THESIS statement. It is best to "weave" your arguments into the thesis (use
        PES, PERSIA if categories are not given).

    d. Good essays get to the point quickly. Avoid broad statements such as "from the earliest
        times....". Don’t waste time getting to the point!

    e. Organize your attack: arrange your arguments in some logical order: chronological,
        least-to-most important, or some such way.

5. Write the Body/Supporting Paragraphs (Prove one "big picture" idea/argument per par.)

    a. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence. Every sentence should relate to and support the
        main idea.

    b. Prove your arguments. Demonstrate "analysis", tell how, why the thing happened.

    c. Provide factual information to prove your thesis. Each set of facts (to support a category)
        should be in a separate paragraph. Use specific support ("capital letters").

    d. Evidence should be used, such as data (facts and figures) or authority (what historians know,
        or think they know).

    e. Evidence is detailed information that gives the reader reason to believe what you tell them. All
        generalizations and assertions should be supported by facts.

    f. Use "structural indicators" (first, in the second place, etc.) and use transitional devices
        between body para- graphs. Show where you are going with your essay.

6. Write the Conclusion

    a. Good essays should end simply and cleanly.

    b. The conclusion should focus on the thesis. Restate the thesis in a fresh and interesting
        manner or explain its significance.

    c. Attempt to use "foreshadowing", connecting to future events, etc. But, do not introduce new
        evidence.

7. Proof the Essay

    a. Check your work

    b. Reread your entire essay; begin with the conclusion, then the intro; see if they agree.

    c. Be familiar with the reminders listed below as you proof your work.

PERTINENT REMINDERS

1. Keep it simple. Do not use "flowery language", or overly complex sentences. Do, though, use a
    few big words (relevant words)…do use them correctly! Don’t use many words when one or two
    will do.

2. Write about the past in the past tense.

3. However, write in the active voice, it is livelier and more interesting to read. Active voice is when
    the subject acts through the verb (Columbus discovered America, Napoleon made the decision to
    invade Russia).

4. Write clearly and neatly. At least, do your very best! Readers are prejudiced against sloppiness!

5. Misspellings may be inevitable, nevertheless, a student should learn to spell terms associated
    with each unit of study as well as other frequently occurring terms, such as "affected" and
    "occurred", words like "which", "their/there".

6. Things to avoid in writing historical essays:

    a. Lengthy quotations. In fact, try to avoid using any quotations in your essays.

    b. Rhetorical questions and rhetoric in general. The essay is not to get on a soapbox and
        espouse personal opinions not relevant to the question.

    c. Do not use personal pronouns ("they" said, e.g.) or vague references.

    d. Writing in the first person, such as "I think", "in my opinion" should be avoided.

DIRECTIVES

Look for directive verbs or phrases that are intended to direct the focus of the essay. Examples:

1. Analyze: Determine the nature and relationship of the component parts of; explain; break down.
    Tell "how", "why" something happened. It is like "cause and effect".

2. Assess: Judge the value of character of something; appraise; evaluate. How true or false it is.

3. Compare: Examine for the purpose of noting similarities and differences. When the question call
    for comparisons, they expect you to include differences as well.

4. Describe: Give an account of; tell about; give a word picture of.

5. Discuss: Talk over; write about; consider or examine by argument or from various points of view;
    debate; present the different sides of.

6. Evaluate: Give the positive points and the negative ones; appraise; give an opinion regarding
    the value of; discuss the advantages and disadvantages of.

7. Examine: Make clear or plain; make clear the causes or reasons for; make known in detail; tell
    the meaning of.

8. To What Extent and In What Ways: How much? In what ways did an event or condition relate
    to another? Understand both what was done and what was still left to be done. Anticipate
    counterarguments.

Prompts to know!!