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DBQ Essay Tips

DBQ Essay Tips. These tips can apply to all types of expository essays!. Opening Paragraph: The Grabber. Be sure your grabber is not too corny or informal. This is a formal essay . Example: “Peace and nonviolence are key to freedom and prosperity.”

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DBQ Essay Tips

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  1. DBQ Essay Tips These tips can apply to all types of expository essays!

  2. Opening Paragraph: The Grabber • Be sure your grabber is not too corny or informal. This is a formal essay. • Example: “Peace and nonviolence are key to freedom and prosperity.” • Notice: the above grabber is also a universal statement because… • the universal statement refers to a truth that applies to many, many areas and topics.

  3. Opening Paragraph:Thesis statement • Make it complete, clear, and direct, NOT… • complicated and vague! • Example: “Martin Luther King’s philosophy made the most sense for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.”

  4. Opening Paragraph:Introduction of the 3 “road map” ideas • Write a full sentence for each of your 3 road map ideas. • Be sure to use the name of the analytical category in each of the 3 road map sentences. (boycotts, Black Nationalism, speeches, etc.) Example: “Malcolm X believes that separation of the races is the only way for blacks to be accepted.”

  5. Body Paragraphs: Topic Sentences  Topic sentences of the body paragraphs should be clear BUT NOT EXACT WORD-FOR-WORD re-statements of your 3 “road map” ideas. Roadmap: Martin Luther King Jr. used boycotts to bring change. Example:Martin Luther King Jr. used boycotts to create economic chaos to promote business to change.

  6. Supporting Sentences within the Body Paragraphs • Use the documents for support. For full credit, you must use at least 1-2 different documents per paragraph and at least 3 different primary source documents for the entire essay. • As you support your road map ideas within the body paragraphs, DO NOT use the word “document” in the text of your essay, such as “Document A says…”

  7. Supporting Sentences within the Body Paragraphs • Instead, use information from the document and put this at the end of your sentence: • Martin Luther King Jr. discusses his personal dream for racial equality(Document 2).

  8. Quotations: • Don’t make the quotes longer than a phrase or a sentence. Most of the paper should be in your own words. • Explain each quotation with at least 2 sentences of your own. This explanation should be in the form of a paraphrase in your own words AND explaining the context of the quotation. • Use the exact words if you are quoting and be sure to spell every word just the way it is spelled in the document.

  9. Using Quotations • Example: (I lifted this directly from an essay without using quotation marks so you can see exactly how it appears on the paper.) • Martin Luther King had a response for the terrible name-calling and snide expressions from his opposition. “No matter what you do to us,” he said, “we will always love you” (Document H). King believed in a nonviolent and loving response to enemies in order to bring about real cooperation and change. This was a very different approach from Malcolm X.

  10. Explaining Quotations and Data • Did you notice the excellent explanations of the quotation on the previous slide? • Before the quotation: Martin Luther King had a response for the terrible name-calling and snide expressions from his opposition. • After the quotation: • King believed in a nonviolent and loving response to enemies in order to bring about real cooperation and change. This was a very different approach from Malcolm X.

  11. Possible Words to Use in Explanations of Quotations and Data • “These data (or this quotation)… • Show(s), relate(s), display(s), prove(s), identif(ies), create(s), paint(s), give(s) credence, chronicle(s), illustrate(s), etc….. • …Jackson’s belief that the common people should have a voice.”

  12. DON’T SAY… • “I’m going to tell you about….” • “Malcolm X showed that he wanted a better life for the African American community.”

  13. DON’T USE… • First person pronouns—I, we, my, us, our, ours, me, mine, etc.! • Second person pronouns—you, your, etc.! • Don’t use the second person command pattern… “Try to picture…Look at the evidence…”

  14. DO USE… • Third person pronouns: he, she, they, one, etc. • Remember that “he,” “she,” and “one” are third person singular, so if you need to use a pronoun later in the sentence, the corresponding pronoun should be “he/she” not “they.” “If one looks at the speech, he/she can see that….”

  15. Closing Paragraph • Re-state your thesis, in different words, of course! • Re-state your 3 road map statements, in different words, of course! • If you really want to knock your reader’s socks off…close with a reference back to your grabber…and if it was a universal statement, all the better. • Example: True progress toward freedom for all can come about only through nonviolence and respect as shown by Martin Luther King.

  16. Caveats and Encouragement • PROOFREAD every time before you ask someone else to read something you’ve written. • BE CAREFUL using the thesaurus. Be sure the shades of meaning and nuances of the word really work. • DO NOT BE AFRAID to write with your own voice. Even in expository writing, your own voice needs to come through.

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