hey ap langers i'm dr clark and this video is all about how to write the argument essay on the ap language and composition test [Music] now the argument essay is the third question on the ap test and this is when you finally get an opportunity to make an argument to take a position and to make that argument completely out of information from your own head with the new ap language and composition exam the college board has adopted a stable prompt wording so you know that the argument essay prompt is going to say write an essay that argues your position on some literary or rhetorical concept or idea past topics have included topics like things that are overrated the value of exploring the unknown the skill of artifice in politics and consumer culture the value of disobedience and promoting human progress topics like that things that have to do with literary or rhetorical concepts so as you can see topics are fairly broad and they're open to discussions including a wide range of different perspectives and a wide range of different examples that you can use to support your position as long as you're a generally educated and informed person you should have some ideas to share about the topic whatever it turns out to be like all three of the essays on the ap language and composition test the college board uses the six point rubric in order to score your essays so there's one point for the thesis four points for evidence and commentary and then one point for sophistication so let's start with the thesis now the key to earning the point for the thesis statement is to write a thesis that presents a defensible position about the topic now be sure you make an argument here don't just discuss the topic in a general way find an aspect of it that is somewhat controversial or up for debate and take a position on it also don't equivocate remember this is an argument essay so it's not a good time to say well there are good arguments on both sides sometimes that's a good strategy but not in an argument essay be sure to write a thesis that responds directly to the topic identified in the prompt there is a line in the rubric that says there is a thesis but it does not respond to the prompt and keep in mind you'll lose the point for the thesis statement no matter how good or interesting it is if it doesn't directly relate to the topic identified in the prompt before we get any further quick warning about tone and style on page 88 of the ap lang and comp course description it says develop the habit of thinking about argument as a way to participate in a conversation of an unresolved question instead of engaging the issue as an adversary so what do they mean don't be an adversary what they mean is don't rant or rave don't engage in ad hominem or personal attacks against those who might disagree with you consider yourself to be addressing an open-minded and academically oriented audience who's willing to listen to an informed opinion now once you've laid out your thesis statement it's essential that you establish at least two and as many as four supporting claims keep in mind that an argument with only one supporting claim is not going to be sufficient on the argument essay so you want to establish a clear and coherent line of reasoning your claims should build toward a coherent message they should all work together to create an argument that flows and that's interconnected logically the best way to make sure you're doing that is to explain the progression between the claims in other words use strong transitions that establish a logical line of reasoning your transitions should show the relationship between paragraphs and arguments show how they build on each other show how they relate to each other that's the easiest way to make sure that you're developing a coherent line of reasoning so the next step on the rubric is evidence and unlike the synthesis essay in the argument essay the evidence is not provided for you there's not going to be any evidence in the packet at all in fact all it's going to be is a prompt it's just going to introduce some sort of literary rhetorical concept and then it's going to ask you to take a position on it and so all of that is going to have to come from inside your own head you have to provide specific evidence to support every claim you make within your line of reasoning so when a lot of students think about evidence the first thing they think of is facts and statistics and obviously facts and statistics are great sources of evidence for an argument essay the problem is they're sometimes hard to remember and keep in mind you can't do any research during the writing of the argument and so if you really don't have those facts and statistics just sort of bouncing off the top of your head there are six sources of evidence that i recommend students think about when writing an argument essay so the first category of evidence is historical examples now examples from history work great on the argument essay on the ap test so let's think about our prompt now immediately when i think about logic versus emotion i think about the jfk nixon debate it was the first ever televised presidential debate and we learned some interesting things from that people had a very emotional reaction to the very youthful and idealistic jfk compared to the more cerebral and intellectual nixon and it made a big difference in how they viewed the election so now i can use that as an example that illustrates the point that i want to make about the prompt so the second source of evidence that i recommend you think about is contemporary events if you can use examples from history you should also be able to think about some examples from the present day so we could talk about the jfk nixon debates we could also talk about the debates between president trump and hillary clinton or the debates between president trump and biden and we could evaluate how logic and emotion played into those presidential debates is a way of illustrating our point about how logic and how emotion works rhetorically now the third source of evidence that i recommend you think about is personal experience now look this is not a personal narrative i don't want this to turn into your life story but you can use very specific examples from your own life in order to illustrate your argument you want to use a specific example from your own life in order to illustrate your point and then you want to show a clear connection so maybe there was a time when you were so emotionally connected to an argument that you weren't able to see the very good arguments on the other side but then when you calmed down and thought about it logically you were able to see what the other person was trying to tell you if you can use an example like that that's going to work really well for an argument on the ap essay the fourth source that i recommend you look at is literature now i'm talking about literature broadly yes we should look at classic literature for sure use huckleberry finn use the great gatsby for sure use of mice in men or whatever great works of literature that you're reading in your english classes but don't neglect to include some sources of popular fiction as well at this point most english teachers are just going to be really happy to hear that you're reading and so whatever books you're reading whatever you like whether it's percy jackson or harry potter or the hunger games or the maze runner don't discount those as possible sources of evidence for the argument essay so right away when i'm thinking about our hypothetical topic of logic versus emotion i'm thinking about the book huckleberry finn and i'm thinking about how powerful that book was and how it really made a difference in the way that people thought about postbellum america and they thought about racism in the post-slavery era and so here's mark twain right he's using humor he's creating these very interesting characters that draw you in and he's changing the way you think about the issue based on his use of emotion boy huckleberry finn would be a great example from literature that i could use so the fifth source of evidence that i want you to consider is academic texts for example maybe in your psychology class you read a really interesting academic text about manipulation and how manipulation works now manipulation is persuasion with the intent to trick or fool the audience in a way that doesn't actually benefit them and you could talk about that concept that you read about in your psychology class and use it as an example of why maybe we should prefer logic over emotion so you see what i'm doing i'm taking that specific text that i read in a completely different class and i'm connecting it directly to the topic that i'm writing about so the last category that i'm going to recommend to you is the most difficult for some students but if you're a really good writer it can also be the most fun and that is theory or academic concept in other words not even necessarily a text that you've read but an academic theory that you're familiar with so for example maybe you've studied stephen tulman's model of argumentation which talks about claim evidence warrant and all the different parts that go into a really persuasive argument and tulman seems to be in favor of the logic side of the debate so again if i was going to write my paper in favor of logic maybe i'd use steven toolman as an example of how a really good logical argument is constructed and how airtight and effective it can be so once you have some really good evidence and examples ready to go don't forget about your commentary it's not enough just to provide evidence and examples you have to show how that evidence supports your thesis in the commentary you want to explain the relationship between the evidence and your thesis and you want to do this at every level of your argument every one of your subclaims should have a specific piece of evidence that is directly connected back to the thesis explicitly so the sixth point on the ap rubric is for sophistication or what we sometimes call complexity in order to demonstrate sophistication you need to demonstrate an understanding of the rhetorical situation you want to make sure that you craft a nuanced argument explore the complexities or tensions within the topic don't avoid them a lot of students instinctively don't want to address the really controversial or really complicated or really difficult aspects of the topic and that's the exact wrong instinct if you're going to get that sophistication and complexity point you need to go after those tensions you need to point out the points at which the argument breaks down the limits of what you're able to prove within that argument another aspect of sophistication is exploring the implications of your argument what's the broader context of the argument you're making what's implied by your argument that you can make more clear or explicit why does your argument matter why is it important these are all things that are going to be essential if you're going to earn that last point now i know a lot of you are worried about grammar and punctuation and here's the thing i do want you to be as clean as possible try not to make mistakes edit as you go but don't go back at the end and spend a lot of time crossing your t's and dotting your eyes it's simply not worth it now if the problems with grammar and mechanics interfere with your ability to communicate your ideas then it will affect your score but it's scored as a rough draft so don't spend too much time editing remember that you've got two hours to write three essays so every minute counts write as cleanly and clearly as possible the first time edit as you go and then move on now the conclusion is an important part of the essay but i don't want you to spend too much time on it a conclusion really should just be one or two sentences long it should restate the thesis in different words and then it should end with some kind of a nice mic drop moment bring your essay to a satisfying conclusion and that's going to leave the reader with the sense that you're a good writer that you're an effective writer and that they should give you a good score so those are the basics of writing the argument essay for the ap language and composition test check out our other videos that describe how to write the synthesis essay and the analysis essay until then thanks for listening i'm dr clark