DBQ – Document Grouping and Thesis – Worksheet

Document Grouping
Group #1 (which docs?) Group #2 (which docs?) Group #3 (which docs?)

Group Category Group Category Group Category

Topic Sentence Topic Sentence Topic Sentence

Potential Themes / Categories of Analysis

 Type (e.g., letter, book, diary, political platform, government document, statistics, newspaper account,
business records)
 Period – in which the documents were written
 Point of View (e.g., you may also make a group of two or more documents whose points of view disagree
with each other; the idea is to show that you can combine and juxtapose the ideas and you recognize that
the documents are “talking” to each other.) Documents can be grouped by their authors…
 Gender - (Male/female/LGBTQ+ Identity)
 Education, occupation, or social or economic class (wealth)
 Nationality
 Religion
 Location (e.g., rural, urban, city, etc.)
 Ideology (e.g. governance/political, military, economics) (could be people or political parties)
o Race (Identity)
 Groups that benefit (any type of group)
o Racial
o Political party, etc.)
 Groups that suffer (any type of group)
o Racial
o Political party, etc.)
 Government policies (economic/political/social)
o Outcomes of government policies
 Changes in social attitudes
o Civil Rights
o Abortion
o Temperance
 War/conflict
Writing the Thesis
Thesis Tips
 Make sure your thesis matches the question.
 Your thesis should be specific. Vague statements are not helpful for making arguments.
Analyze the documents to help you determine the historical themes and specific evidence
that you will use in your thesis.
 You should try to write the thesis in a single sentence. AP readers and college professors
like clear and concise theses.

Ex DBQ question.

Evaluate the extent to which Jacksonian Democrats lived up to their view of themselves as
guardians of the U.S. Constitution, political democracy, individual liberty, and equality of
economic opportunity.

Potential Thesis Statements

1. Direct: This is a straightforward statement that clearly and directly answers the question.

To a remarkable degree, Jacksonian Democrats succeeded in implementing their vision

of American society.

2. Compound: Use this approach when trying to prove two main points. Use the word “and”

Jacksonian Democrats successfully portrayed themselves as guardians of American

ideals and did indeed achieve a remarkable degree of success in protecting those ideals.

3. Split: This approach splits the thesis into several categories. In essence it combines the
thesis statement with the plan of attack/themes of the essay. This works best when the
prompt itself provides the essay categories.

To a large extent Jacksonian Democrats were not effective guardians of the U.S.
Constitution, political democracy, individual liberty, and equality of economic
opportunity.

4. Complex-Direct: This type of thesis statement acknowledges that contrary evidence

exists and addresses the complexity inherent in most essay prompts. A well-executed
complex thesis offers students the best opportunity to get the thesis point. Key words
such as “although” are helpful in constructing this type of thesis.
 Although Jacksonian Democrats truly believed that they were the guardians of American
ideals, their actions betrayed other priorities and rarely lived up to either their rhetoric
or intentions.

5. Complex-Split: This approach splits the thesis into several categories, acknowledges that
contrary evidence exists and tackles the complexity inherent in most APUSH essays.

Even though Jacksonian Democrats failed in their self0appointed roles as the guardians
of the U.S. Constitution and individual liberty, they achieved great success in
strengthening political democracy and the equality of economic opportunity.

OR

Although Jacksonian Democrats occasionally failed to successfully guard the U.S.

Constitution, individual liberty, political democracy, and equality of economic
opportunity, overall their policies were quite effective in that regard.

Write your thesis in the space below.

Go to the next page.

Contextualization Hints
 3-4 sentences at the very beginning of the essay.
 Only do before or during in relation to the period of the question. Never do after!
 I always recommend students write about things before the period of the question
because it removes the possibility that you will double dip for the evidence outside
the docs part of the rubric. Whatever you write about in the contextualization has to
be different than what you write in the evidence outside the docs section!
 Only go back about 50 years before the period of the question.
 Whatever you write must be related to the topic of the question in some way.

Contextualization:

Evidence Beyond the Docs Hints

 Has to be 3-4 sentences.
 Must explain how this evidence is connected to the question prompt.
 Only need one piece of Evidence Beyond the Docs per essay.
Evidence Beyond the Documents:

Using evidence (the documents) and earning sourcing credit (POV, audience, historical
situation, and purpose)
Follow this format for every document.
SEE
 Summarize – write 1-2 sentences to summarize the document. Write it in your own
words.
 Explain how the doc is relevant to the question prompt.
 Explain why the document was created (POV, audience, historical situation, and purpose)
o Try to source the docs. Remember, you only need to do 1 of these 4 for each
document. Think about

 Historical situation
 What else was happening around the time this was created that
applies to the document and the question?
 Audience
 Who was this written to persuade or scandalize? This could be
groups of people, individuals, or organizations.
 Point of View
 If you know anything about the author or creator of the document,
try to provide at 2 pieces of information about them.
 If you do not know anything specific about the author, then try to
recall information about other people like the creator that would
apply to author/creator.
 Purpose
 Author/Creator’s goal for making this document.
o Inform
o Persuade
o Anger
o Pass a specific policy
o Call for change