Table of Contents
The Basics of the Contextualization Point
How to Earn the Contextualization Point
Understanding Contextualization
Where To Put Contextualization
Myth 1: Contextualization must be at the beginning of the paper.
Myth 2: The contextualization must come from x years before the time period.
Myth 3: Contextualization, historical context, and historical situation are wildly different things.
The Basics of Contextualization
Let's tackle what contextualization is. The root word here is "context." Context refers to an event's surroundings or circumstances. Humans care about context because it gives us information about a specific thing. This information helps us determine the meaning or importance of a particular event. We can understand an event in a new way when we understand its context.
Let's look at an example.
Event: A baseball pitcher winds up and throws a pitch.
This is pretty mundane, right? Because this event lacks context, it's hard to judge why this event matters. Let's look at this event with some context.
Context 1: It's the seventh game of the World Series. Ninth inning. Bases loaded. The score is tied. Three balls and two strikes. A baseball pitcher winds up and throws a pitch.
Now, this event has some drama. The extra context tells us that this pitch matters. It's high-stakes and high-pressure.
Let's change the context and see what happens.
Context 2: Last season, the pitcher blew out his elbow. Nobody expected him to ever pitch again. After three surgeries and endless setbacks, he winds up and throws a pitch.
This time we have a comeback story. Everyone love an underdog. This account is much more dramatic than the original account that didn't have context. But it's also dramatic in different way than the World Series pitch. That's because the context has changed how we interpret what meaning of the pitch is.
Let's look at one more example.
Context 3: A baseball pitcher winds up and throws a pitch. He is fourteen, and his mother snaps a picture from the stands. A decade later, he gets his chance to play in the major leagues. His mother pulls that picture out of the drawer and smiles. Nobody knew what doors would open up because of that first pitch.
This context lacks all the glamour and drama of the other options. Once again, the context has given us information about why the event matters. It reveals an important truth about context. Sometimes, the significance only reveals itself as a part of a series of events. Circumstances can include processes that exist during and continue after a specific event.
In each case, the event stayed the same. It was the circumstances around the even that changed. I can influence how you perceive an event by giving you more information. I can tell you what happened before (Context 2) or during (Context 1) an event. I can also talk about a process that is starting and will continue (Context 3).
This principle applies in many parts of our lives. If my friends snaps at me, I get frustrated. But if I know that she has three tests later that day, there's a pretty good chance I'll forgive her. If she snaps at me and blames it on a test from two weeks ago, that's pretty sus.
On a more serious note, murder is a crime, but killing in self-defense isn't. Context matters in even the most serious of events.
When we contextualize historical events, we use these same principles. We can help our audience understand it's significance by giving them more information. If we tell them about how it happened, they can understand why it matters.
How to Earn the Contextualization Point
Understanding Contextualization
You must provide information about the circumstances of the topic to earn this point. That information should help the audience understand the significance of the event.
Let's break that down.
Every prompt will have a main topic. It could be a specific event or location, like the Southeast Asia. It could be a pattern over time. For example, your topic could be beliefs about the federal government. This topic may be more specific than a theme, event, or period. One example of this is "gender roles during the Industrial Revolution." In this case, gender roles and the Industrial Revolution narrow that topic down. It's important to understand the topic before you start writing. If the contextualization is irrelevant to the topic, you won't earn the point. The information won't help the audience understand the event.
You have several options when it comes to what circumstances to discuss. You can discuss events or people who influenced the event. People could mean individuals, but it can also mean groups of people. You can also talk about developments and processes. This is a fancy way of saying a series of steps or changes that occur over a longer period of time. It can also cover new ideas or practices.
Finally, contextualization requires description. It is good to include specific vocabulary or proper nouns when possible. But a single phrase or word will not earn the point. A phrase does not give the audience enough information to understand the event in a new way. If we return to our baseball analogy, if I said "underdog" that doesn't give a lot of information about the context. Who is the underdog? The team, the pitcher, or the batter? There's that old English standby that we should show, not tell. It's true here too. Don't drop a word and then move on. Use the specific vocabulary and explain your ideas.
The prompt will outline a specific period. The circumstances can be from before, during, or "continue after" this period. You get more flexibility with time when compared with any other part of your paper. Consider our baseball examples above. The first contextualization was during the event and the second one was before. The last one discussed things that continued after the initial event.
Strategies
There isn't one single way to contextualize a document. That can make it difficult to know if you're on the right track. When I am unsure about my direction, I return to the goal. Does this information help my reader understand the circumstances that shaped these events? As long as my answer is yes, then I am on the right track. I take time to ask myself that before I start writing.
Contextualization is one area where it pays to think big picture. This is different from the rest of my essay. You improve the thesis, evidence, and argumentation by providing specifics. Contextualization is about going broad. I don't have to stick to the specific period. So being open to ideas a little further away is helpful. I can generate many ideas that way, and then chose the best one.
Consider our baseball pitcher earlier. The pitcher's record, childhood, or career helped you understand the pitch's significance. That's true even though you didn't get any information about the actual pitch itself.
I recommend contextualizing your paper using events that happened before the current period. Many students find it easier to consider the timeline before the period they have to write about. This also allows you to save information that you may be able to use for the outside evidence point.
It's also a good idea to focus on things that occurred close to the period covered by the prompt. It's easier to describe a strong connection between things close in time. The further apart they are, the weaker those connections become.
Where To Put the Contextualization
There are several reasons for this. First, the goal of an introduction is to hook the reader and gain their attention. One way to do that is to give the reader information about why an issue is important. Another way to do that is to explain information that helps the reader understand your topic. In other words, contextualizing a topic is a common way to start an essay in many fields.
The contextualization is one of what I call the Top Three points on a Document Based Question. They are the three points that don't take a lot of time to complete. If you earn these three points, you'll have an above average score on the Document Based Question. You will also be in contention for a 4 or 5 on the exam. I advocate completing these three point first. That way, you won't forget about them and you'll write them when you have the most focus and attention.
Contextualizing in the first paragraph is not required. If you chose to put it elsewhere, make sure it is clear to the grader that your contextualizing.
Putting It All Together
Examples
Let's us this prompt for this example:
Evaluate the extent to which the Columbian Exchange changed the Western Hemisphere.
In this case, my topic is the Columbian Exchange AND it's impact on the Western Hemisphere. The majority of my essay will be about changes during or after Columbus' arrival in the Americans and the following colonization of the Americas.
I could choose to focus on the events that helped shape or start the Columbian Exchange. This is relevant to my topic because without causes, there would be no exchange. It's also likely that the causes of any major event continue to impact history after any specific event starts. These events can give information about the circumstances of this trade.
I could talk about any of the major political, economic, or technological developments that led to the Columbian Exchange. I could focus on the development of new ships, like carracks and caravels. This technology also enabled repeated transfers of diseases, plants, and animals between hemispheres. By adding this context, I am helping my reader understand why the Columbian Exchange happened during this time. That's useful context.
I could also focus on development and processes. For example, trade rouse introduced Europeans to Asian luxury goods, like silk and spices. This was a long-term change that motivated Europeans to invest in new technology, but it also motivated them to repeatedly return to the Americas. They could get goods like silver from the Americas, and then use that silver to buy luxury products Asia. This is useful contextualization because it reveals important aspects about this trade. It helps the reader understand what is happening and why.
The Columbian Exchange isn't the only topic mentioned in the prompt. I can contextualize this essay by discussing the Western Hemisphere. For example, I could discuss the existing states in the Americas. For example, I could discuss how various societies in the Americas farmed. This could include the Incan use of the potato or Aztec chinampas. The types of crops grown and the way people grow them will change because of the Columbian Exchange. This strategy gives my reader context about what things were like before this period. It's a great setup for any essay that will emphasize changes.
Myths and Misconceptions
Myth 1: Contextualization must be at the beginning of the paper.
The contextualization does NOT need to be at the beginning of the paper. You can put it anywhere in the paper as long as the grader can determine that it is contextualization.
This follows a general principle of AP history exams. There are no points awarded for format, organization, or mechanics. Those things don't measure your understanding of history. That means you don't earn or lose points for organization. Of course, errors can't make it impossible to understand what you meant.
Remember: A happy grader is a happy grade. Your teacher gets to grade your paper. If your they say it should be in the first paragraph, then you must put it in the first paragraph. This is a good writing practice generally, so it's not worth sparing over.
Myth 2: The contextualization must come from x years before the time period.
X can stand for any arbitrary period of time. For AP World History, I've heard everything from fifty years to three hundred years. People also recommend using something from the period immediately before the prompt's period.
The rubric does not state that the contextualization has to come from a narrow period of time. It says your contextualization can occur during or "continue after" the prompt's period. There is no reason to limit yourself to a range of times that's more narrow than it needs to be.
In fairness, there is a glimmer of good advice in this misconception. It's always easier to contextualize something close to the topic in question. It's better to choose events close together in time over one that's more distant. It's easy to forgive your friend for being rude if they have five tests on the same day they were curt. The connection is intuitive. It's harder to see the connection if she's rude two week's later. It may be there, but you need to show it.
If you want to contextualize World War II, then World War I is a better choice than the French Revolution. Could I make a connection between the French Revolution and World War II? Without a doubt. Am I choosing to play on hard mode if I do? Yes. I don't like doing that when I'm already stressed and more likely to make errors. It's already hard. Again, this is a guideline and not an absolute statement. If you know twice as many things about the French Revolution, and you see a clear connection, that may be the right choice.
This misconception is a problem if you have a prompt from one of the earlier time periods. It's entirely possible that you may forget what happened in the previous time period. Remembering all your options can help you tackle this kind of question.
Like before, a happy grader is a happy grade. If you teacher puts time restrictions on contextualization, that's okay. Do it their way when they're grading.
Myth 3: Contextualization, historical context, and historical situation are wildly different things.
Contextualization, historical context, and historical situation have specific meanings in AP classes. Elsewhere, they are interchangeable.
In AP history classes, historical context and contextualization go together. They describe the relevant circumstances for the main topic of your essay. This helps people understand the meaning or significance of a specific topic. Historical situation is part of the sourcing point. Sourcing is about describing the relevant circumstances for a specific historical document. It helps people understand the meaning or significance of a specific document. We do that by making connections to historical events or developments. This is the document's historical situation.
It's the same type of thinking applied to different scopes. Contextualization and historical context refer to the whole period. Historical situation applies to a single document created in that period.
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