POV ANALYSIS PRACTICE:
WHAT’S ACCEPTABLE vs. WHAT’S NOT?
Directions: For each of the following statements of point of view analysis,
identify which ones would receive credit and which wouldn’t. Assume that the
student has used the source information and interpreted the document
correctly. If you believe the statement would not receive credit on the DBQ,
explain why it missed the mark.
1. “In document 7, we see another perspective of the Huns’ invasions and how it caused the
Huns, who were seen as barbarians, to adopt Christianity.”
2. “It is important to recognize though that the information in this document may not be
completely valid because it was written by the leader of the Huns (Attila) and, therefore, he
would have naturally been biased.”
3. “This document may have a point of view that is biased against Roman culture because it
was written by the emperor of the Huns who would obviously think the Hun’s customs were
the best and would naturally want to teach them to everyone.”
4. “The point of view of Attila is one of intolerance.”
5. “The point of view of the author isn’t biased at all because he was a Christian bystander,
so his opinion is believable. Callinicus had nothing to do with the invaders taking over the
Western Roman Empire so he was more likely to have written about the events from an
unbiased, third party observation. He neither favored the Romans or the Huns.”
6. “This document’s perspective of events may be skewed. One must take into account that
the painting was created in 1360 which was almost a thousand years after it happened.”
7. “Although Jordanes’ description is very clear, it was written one-hundred years after the
Battle of Chalons and so the description may be incorrect in some ways. This is due to the
tendency that, in time, many events may become heavily exaggerated if not recorded
immediately after the event occurred.”
8. “Three of the documents are told from the Roman perspective. They each viewed the
Huns as barbaric and violent.”
9. “However, this document can be hard to seem completely true due to the fact that Attila
was the leader of his civilization and would therefore be less inclined to speak negatively
about it. As leader, he’d want to show pride in his people and culture, no matter what.”
10. “Although this document, written by Bishop Philostorgius, clearly supports cultural
acceptance, we can not be sure that it is completely accurate. Being a bishop, Philostorgius
wanted to see the barbarian outsiders indoctrinated into the Christian faith and was thus
biased about the amount of success that the Roman Christians had in converting the
barbarians. As a result, there may be a degree of exaggeration to this document in order to
make it appear that the Church was highly successful in their conversion efforts.”