(^40) › STEP 3. Develop Strategies for Success
Creating the Outline for the DBQ
Recall that the next steps in creating your essay in response to the DBQ include the following:
Step 2. Compose a thesis that explains how these documents are linked in the way you
have chosen.
Step 3. Compose your topic sentences and make sure that they add up logically to your
thesis.
Step 4. Support and illustrate your thesis with specific examples that contextualize
the documents.
An outline for your essay in response to this DBQ could look like this:
Thesis: These documents show that arguments regarding the basis for knowledge of the natu-
ral world have often hinged on assumptions about the reliability of sense experience.
Topic Sentence A: Documents 1 and 6 illustrate the faith in direct, trial-and-error experience
that developed in the “alchemy” and “natural magic” traditions.
Specific Examples: della Porta’s emphasis on “practical application”; Agricola’s emphasis
on handling the materials, making “dissolutions” and “combinations” and recording results
carefully
Topic Sentence B: Documents 4 and 5 illustrate the emphasis on observation as the correct
starting place for knowledge of the natural world.
Specific Examples: Bacon outlines two approaches and argues for the superiority of the
one that begins with observed particulars; Harvey illustrates how the method should work.
Topic Sentence C: Documents 2 and 7 refine the process to include the goal of finding gen-
eral laws.
Specific Examples: Galileo: sense experiences and very exact observations. Begin not from
the authority of scriptural passages, but from sense experiences and necessary demonstra-
tions. Nature never transgresses the laws imposed upon her. Newton codifies the approach
into “rules.”
Topic Sentence D: Document 3 dissents from the view that sense experience is a valid foun-
dation for knowledge of the natural world.
Specific Examples: Bellarmine: the dangers of contradicting scholastic and church authority
Now you are ready to write your essay based on this outline. If you have time, you can
go on to step 5, but remember a conclusion isn’t actually necessary. Here’s a sample topic
sentence for a short concluding paragraph:
Conclusion: The variety of attitudes and positions regarding knowledge about the natural
world depended upon the amount of faith one put in the reliability of sense experience.
Scoring the DBQ
Although I encourage you not to get too concerned with how the graders go about scor-
ing the exams (writing a quality essay is the best way to ensure a good score), it is worth
mentioning that the scoring of essays on the AP European History Exam is now done
with an “analytical rubric” as opposed to a “holistic rubric.” What that means is that
instead of awarding a single score for the overall quality of the essay, the high school and
college instructors scoring your essay will be awarding points for particular aspects of a
response. That is, they will be awarding points for each of the historical thinking skills you06_Bartolini_Ch06_033-042.indd 40 12/04/18 12:10 PM