• 50% of score
• 10 minute reading period
• 2 hours to write 3 essays
• Essays should be 5 paragraphs
• Thesis, body, body, body, closing
• Spend 5-10 minutes outlining your essay before you start writing

• Document-Based Question Essay (DBQ)
• Change-Over-Time Essay
• Comparative Essay

• Look at directions
– Underline where you are getting the points and how many.
• Look at the question
– What are they asking me to do (analyze, compare, explain, describe, etc)
– Which characteristics are they asking me about
– Which civilization are they asking me about and when
• Brainstorm the topic
– What do you know about this topic

• Key to writing a good essay, first thing the reader sees.
• Worth 1 or 2 of 9 points
• Readers ask
– Is the thesis acceptable? (1 st point)
– Do you have a comprehensive, analytical and explicit thesis (Possible 2 nd point)
• Try to keep it to only one comprehensive sentence.

• Rephrase the question as a simple answer.
• Decide which 3 characteristics your body paragraphs are going to talk about. Come up with another word to describe the characteristic that is more specific, yet still broad enough to write 3 details about.
– Economic….. Trade
– Social……family structure
– Political…… revolutionary process
• Try to change the verbs to make a strong statement about what you are going to prove
– Changed….transformed
– Effected…influenced

• Next outline your essay. Use this 5 paragraph form.
• 1) Thesis
• 2) Body 1 Thesis
– Concrete detail and commentary
– Concrete detail and commentary
– Concrete detail and commentary
• 3) Body 2 Thesis
– Concrete detail and commentary
– Concrete detail and commentary
– Concrete detail and commentary
• 4) Body 3 Thesis
– Concrete detail and commentary
– Concrete detail and commentary
– Concrete detail and commentary
• 5) Conclusion

• Now write the essay by following your outline
• Remember your concrete details must be based on historical fact, not opinion.
• Support what your going to say by adding evidence.
• Your commentary explains why this detailed happened and how it relates to your thesis. It may be part of your concrete detail sentence or a separate sentence following it.
• Introduce evidence for each key phrase

• Use transitional and trigger words to highlight important points in your thesis
– Contrast or Change
• But, however, although, though in contrast, alternatively
– Similarity or Continuity
• Since, moreover, similarity, as well as, still, likewise, therefore

• Finish your essay with a concluding paragraph.
• Like your thesis it should be only be one sentence.
• Simply restate your thesis in different words.

• Write neatly, if you don’t know how to spell a word choose another
• Watch your time
– Spending to much time on the 1 st essay could mean running out of time for the last
• Think before you write
– Make notes, jot ideas, create an outline
– The more work you do before you write, the neater and more organized your essay will be