A.P. U.S. History
DBQ Essay Scoring Guide
____/2 Thesis and Context
___Thesis makes a historically defensible claim and specifically addresses all parts of the prompt. (1) *Borderline Point
Improvement Needed:
___Thesis is properly argumentative but is vague too simplistic and lacks the necessary level of specificity.
___Thesis is needs better organization, is awkwardly phrased, or simply restates the prompt.
___Thesis is incoherent, confusing, or incorrect/off topic
___Contextualization: uses knowledge not found in the documents to place the argument within broader historical events,
developments, or processes immediately relevant to the question. (1)
Improvement Needed:
___ Context paragraph is not clear within the body of the essay.
___ Content paragraph relies too heavily on information outside the time frame
___ Context paragraph is repetitive of actual essay content, or gives too many details
___ Context paragraph does not give a sense that writer understands what is happing during the given time period
___ Information given is inaccurate or irrelevant, or too vague to convey an understanding of time period *Borderline Point
___/1 Argument (Analysis)
___Contains a well-developed and cohesive argument that accounts for historical complexity by illustrating contradictory, corroborative, and
qualified relationships among historical evidence. (1) *Borderline Point
Improvement Needed:
___ Be sure to connect evidence back to the prompt, analysis/argument is vague/unclear/incoherent
___ Needs more depth and development of analysis
Document Usage
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
H I P P H I P P H I P P H I P P H I P P H I P P H I P P
___/2 Document Analysis
___Utilizes the content of at least six of the documents to support the stated thesis or a relevant argument. (1) *Borderline Point
___Explains the significance of the historical context, the audience, the author’s purpose, and/or the author’s point of view for at
least four documents.(1) *Borderline Point
Improvement Needed:
___Document usage is lacking in the analysis of historical context, audience, purpose, and/or point of view.
___Essay utilizes the content of fewer than six documents in support of the stated thesis or relevant argument.
___Documents are simply listed, summarized, described or quoted. FOCUS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DOC
___Documents are interpreted or analyzed incorrectly
___Document usage is poor. Don’t say “in doc 1 it says”, don’t just describe what is in the doc, must cite documents
___/1 Using Evidence Beyond the Documents
___Outside Evidence: provides numerous examples or additional pieces of specific supportive evidence beyond those found in
the documents and different from the evidence used to earn other points on this rubric. (1)
Improvement Needed:
___Evidence is listy, oversimplified, or not enough
___There is no outside evidence or evidence is incorrect, irrelevant, or vague or without context
___ Must connect evidence back to the prompt *Borderline Point
___/.5 Synthesis EXTRA CREDIT
Essay extends the argument by explaining the connections between the argument and ONE of the following:
___a) A development in a different historical period, situation, era, or geographical area. (1)
___b A course theme and/or approach to history that is not the focus of the essay (such as political, economic, social, cultural or
intellectual history). (1)
Improvement Needed:
___Attempts at synthesis are unsuccessful due to inaccuracy, irrelevancy, a lack of specificity/proper development, or vague
___There are no attempts at synthesis. *Borderline Point
OVERALL:
Doesn’t answer the prompt asked
Evidence study more/inadequate understanding “listy” oversimplifications
need more evidence/facts be specific!
Analysis connect evidence to the prompt
more depth/development explain the how/why
Grammar/writing
AWK- awkward phrasing PT-use past tense (led) INF- informal (I, me, you we/questions/abbreviations/basically) WC- poor word choices
Poor sentence structure (RO-runs-ons, FRAG-fragments, VS- verb-subject agreement) PV-passive voice spelling errors SP-spelling
Two lines under a letter- capitalization errors handwriting ORG- improve organization essay doesn’t flow within/between paragraphs be concise