How to Write the ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY FRQ for AP Gov
Summary
TLDRThis video from the Heimlich series focuses on mastering the argumentative essay for the AP Government exam. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the prompt, planning with evidence, and adhering to the rubric for a high score. The host guides viewers through crafting a strong thesis, selecting relevant evidence, and incorporating reasoning and an alternate perspective to construct a compelling argument, aiming for a perfect score of six.
Takeaways
- 📝 The AP Government argumentative essay is the most complex writing task, scored on a scale of six points.
- ⏰ Students are given 40 minutes to complete the essay, focusing on material from nine foundational documents.
- 🎯 The essay's subject and argument should be clearly identified from the exam prompt to avoid misdirection.
- 🧠 A few minutes should be spent planning the essay, brainstorming specific evidence to support the argument.
- 📑 The essay must include evidence from the documents provided in the prompt, with at least one piece being mandatory.
- 📝 A strong thesis is crucial, as it sets the stage for the essay and is the first point of scoring.
- 🔍 Evidence must be named, explained, and analyzed to demonstrate how it supports the thesis for full points.
- 🤔 Including an alternate perspective and then refuting it strengthens the essay and can earn an additional point.
- 📈 The rubric is the guide for what readers are looking for, so understanding it is key to scoring well.
- 💯 To achieve a perfect score, the essay must effectively use evidence to support a clear argument, analyze that evidence, and consider alternative viewpoints.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the argumentative essay in the AP Government curriculum?
-The main focus of the argumentative essay in the AP Government curriculum is to analyze and discuss material from the nine foundational documents required in the course, using evidence to support an argument about a specific prompt.
How is the argumentative essay scored?
-The argumentative essay is scored on a scale of six points, with each point building on the previous one according to a rubric that evaluates the thesis, evidence, reasoning, and alternate perspective.
What is the suggested time to write the argumentative essay?
-The suggested time to write the argumentative essay is 40 minutes.
What are the two key elements to look for in the essay prompt?
-The two key elements to look for in the essay prompt are the subject and the argument. The subject is the topic of the essay, and the argument is the stance or point of view the student is expected to take on that subject.
Why is it important to understand the prompt before writing the essay?
-Understanding the prompt is crucial because if the student misunderstands the prompt and writes about a different topic, they will earn zero points regardless of the quality of the essay, as it will not address the given prompt.
What is the purpose of the introduction and required documents provided in the prompt?
-The introduction in the prompt provides helpful context, while the required documents are sources that can be used to support the argument with specific evidence.
How should a student approach planning their essay?
-A student should spend a few minutes brainstorming and writing down potential pieces of specific evidence that could be used to address the prompt, even before forming a complete argument.
What is the significance of the thesis in the argumentative essay?
-The thesis is significant because it sets the direction for the essay and must make an argument while being specific with evidence. If a student does not earn the thesis point, the highest possible score for the essay is one out of six.
How can a student earn the full three points for evidence in the rubric?
-A student can earn the full three points for evidence by using at least two pieces of evidence to support their thesis, with at least one piece coming from the documents listed in the prompt.
What does the reasoning section of the rubric require?
-The reasoning section requires the student to go beyond just stating evidence by demonstrating how or why the evidence supports their thesis, which involves naming, explaining, and analyzing the evidence.
How can a student earn the point for alternate perspective in the rubric?
-A student can earn the point for alternate perspective by acknowledging an opposing view and then showing why their argument makes better sense of the evidence.
Outlines
📝 Understanding the AP Government Argumentative Essay
This paragraph introduces the AP Government curriculum's most complex writing task: the argumentative essay. It emphasizes the essay's difficulty, the need to utilize all learned material, and the importance of addressing the essay prompt correctly. The essay is scored on a scale of six points, with a suggested writing time of 40 minutes. The focus is on material from nine foundational documents, and the video offers guidance on how to approach the essay, including understanding the prompt, planning, and using evidence to support an argument. The paragraph also discusses the importance of correctly identifying the subject and argument from the prompt and the role of foundational documents in providing evidence.
📚 Mastering the Rubric for AP Government Argumentative Essay
The second paragraph delves into the rubric for scoring the argumentative essay, explaining how points are awarded for the thesis, evidence, reasoning, and alternate perspective. It advises on crafting a strong thesis that makes an argument and is specific with evidence, which is crucial for earning points. The paragraph outlines the process of earning up to three points for evidence by naming, explaining, and analyzing it in support of the thesis. It also covers the reasoning section, where an additional point is earned by demonstrating how the evidence supports the thesis. Lastly, it discusses the alternate perspective section, where acknowledging an opposing view and defending the writer's argument can secure another point, aiming for a perfect score of six.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Argumentative Essay
💡Rubric
💡Prompt
💡Evidence
💡Thesis
💡Reasoning
💡Foundational Documents
💡Planning
💡Alternate Perspective
💡Federalism
💡Cooperative Federalism
Highlights
The argumentative essay is the most complex writing task in the AP Government curriculum.
The essay is scored on a scale of six points, with points building on each other.
You have 40 minutes to write the essay.
The essay focuses on material from the nine foundational documents required in the course.
Step one is to read the prompt carefully to understand what is being asked.
Look for the subject and the argument in the prompt.
The essay must answer the given prompt to score points.
Step two is planning your essay, focusing on evidence to support your argument.
Brainstorm and write down potential pieces of specific evidence.
The essay will provide three required documents to use as evidence.
Think about how each document might provide evidence for your argument.
Step three is to get a perfect score by understanding the rubric.
The thesis should be at the beginning or end of the essay and should make an argument with specific evidence.
The highest score you can get without a good thesis is one out of six.
For the evidence section, you can earn up to three points by using evidence to support your thesis.
At least one piece of evidence must come from the documents listed in the prompt.
The reasoning section is worth up to one point and involves demonstrating how your evidence supports your thesis.
You need to name, explain, and analyze your evidence.
The final section is for an alternate perspective, where you can earn one point by acknowledging an opposing view and defending your argument.
Following these steps will help you earn a six on the essay.
Transcripts
hey there welcome back to heimlich
history in this video we're going to
look at the most complex writing you're
going to have to do for the ap
government curriculum namely the
argumentative essay is it difficult does
it require to use everything you've
learned in this course yep are you going
to punch it in the throat yank out its
armpit hair and then deliberately hurt
its feelings oh yeah well all right then
let's get to it so the argument of essay
is the last thing you'll have to do on
your exam and let me start by giving you
some preliminaries it's an essay scored
on a scale of six points and you need to
pay attention when i explain the rubric
because these points build on each other
second the suggested time that you're
gonna have to write this essay is 40
minutes third this essay is always going
to focus on material from the nine
foundational documents that are required
in this course and if you need help on
those i've got videos explaining them
all so have a look okay now with all
that out of the way let me walk you
through the three steps you need to
follow in order to score well on this
essay step number one read the prompt
and i know this sounds too obvious to
even say out loud but remember when i'm
under pressure i am dumber than i think
so i need to really take a minute and
understand what they're asking me to do
remember if you misunderstand the prompt
and yet write the most magnificent essay
in the history of political science on
another topic you will earn zero points
because you have to answer the prompt
that they give you so what should you be
looking for in the prompt well i think
you should be looking for two things the
subject and the argument let me just
give you an example here's the prompt
from the 2019 exam develop an argument
about whether the expanded powers of the
national government benefits or hinders
policy making okay what is going to be
the subject of my essay the expanded
powers of the national government and
second what will i be arguing whether
that benefits or hinders policymaking so
underline those things mark them up
tattoo them on your forehead just make
sure you understand what they're asking
you to do now they also give you a
little introduction here and that's
helpful so don't skip over it they also
give you three required documents and
i'll show you what to do with those when
we get to the preparation section which
is roughly now step two is to spend a
few minutes planning your essay and let
me tell you what you need to do in this
plan the driving force of this essay is
going to be the evidence that you
produce in support of an argument so
spend a couple of minutes no more than a
couple of minutes brainstorming and
writing down all the potential pieces of
specific evidence that you could use to
address this problem you don't even have
to have an argument yet all you're doing
is mining the old brain folds for
relevant vocabulary words so in response
to the problems we just looked at here's
a few pieces of evidence that
immediately come to mind and if you're
already starting to panic at this point
because like you're not sure that you
could remember this don't worry because
look at this they've already given you
three pieces of evidence that you could
potentially use now i'll tell you what
the requirements are for these in the
third step but for now i'm just going to
look at my prompt and think about how
each of these documents might provide
evidence for an argument and notice
they're going to give you documents that
can support the argument in several
different ways so next to the articles
of confederation i'm just going to write
a quick note about how the weakness of
the central government hindered
policymaking next to brutus 1 i'm going
to write a note about how a large
republic will keep people from knowing
their representatives and vice versa
next to federalist 10 i'm going to write
competition of factions now you should
also think about some evidence that is
not on this list and since this is a
question about federalism i'm just going
to jot down fiscal federalism since that
has to do with policy making and i also
think of federalist 70 which has to do
with the efficiency of a single
executive okay now that's actually way
more evidence than i need to score full
points but it's good to have more than
you need just do a brain dump here and
it's gonna help you in the next step
speaking of which step three get a six
now in order to get a six you need to
get real cozy with the rubric because
the rubric tells you exactly what the
readers of these essays are going to be
looking for and the standard by which
they're going to judge your writing so
let's get into the weeds and talk about
each point the first section on the
rubric is for the thesis and you can
earn one point for it now technically
your thesis can be anywhere in the essay
and still earn the point but i strongly
suggest that you put it either at the
beginning or the end of your essay and
the reason is this you want to signal to
the reader that you know what you're
doing and that you have a plan remember
that these are human beings reading
these essays and you don't want them to
have to go on a hunt to find your thesis
in order for you to earn the point now
to be clear they will go on a hunt for
it and find it and give you the point if
it's there but just make it easy for
them and put it at the beginning or at
the end my suggestion is to put it first
so that you know what you're doing and
where you're going now as i'm fond of
reminding my students don't let your
theses be feces if you want to earn the
thesis point then you need to do two
things you need to make an argument and
be specific with your evidence so going
back to the prompts we already looked at
here's the thesis that would earn the
point the expanded powers of the
national government benefit policymaking
because of the strength of the
constitution the increase of cooperative
federalism and the advantages of fiscal
federalism okay this is a thesis written
by a student and notice it makes an
argument expanded powers benefit policy
making and then it's also specific why
do expanded powers benefit policy making
because of the strength of the
constitution the increase of cooperative
federalism and the advantages of fiscal
federalism boom that gets the point
because it makes an argument and is
specific with the evidence and those
three pieces of evidence give you a
roadmap for how you're going to
construct your body paragraphs now the
last thing i'll say about the thesis is
this i cannot overemphasize how
important it is that you write a good
argumentative thesis because if you
don't earn this point the highest score
you can get on the whole essay is one
out of six because this whole essay is
going to be about supporting an argument
with evidence then you have to have an
argument to support so get the thesis
down and you'll be fine okay the next
section on the rubric is the evidence
section and here you can earn up to
three points now i debated whether to
walk you through all the possibilities
for how to get points or whether just to
focus on how to get full points so
everything will be a little simpler but
i think it's helpful for you to see how
each of these points is awarded so you
know exactly what to do to earn full
points so on the evidence section you
can start by earning zero points you'll
get this if your evidence is just flat
out wrong or too vague and to avoid the
vague part just make sure you're
thinking about actual vocabulary words
from your textbook or your notes or
class or whatever that will keep you
from being too vague okay then you can
earn one point here for naming one piece
of evidence relevant to the topic of the
prompt for example if you say under the
articles of confederation the central
government was weak and the states were
strong then that definitely is relevant
to the prompt but there's no real
argumentation there so if you do that
you will get one point and by the way
when i said earlier that if you don't
get the thesis point you can only earn
one out of six this is the point that
you can earn this is literally a soft
toss from the college board it's like
they're saying you know we don't want a
bunch of zeros on this essay so what's
the lowest possible bar that we can set
and that's it okay now let's talk about
how you get two points in this section
this just builds on the previous point
if you successfully identify one piece
of relevant evidence you get one point
but if you use that evidence to support
your thesis that will earn you two
points and i'm going to show you the
difference between just mentioning
evidence and supporting an argument with
evidence when we get to the next section
of the rubric just to be clear this
piece of evidence doesn't have to come
from those three documents listed there
it can come from anywhere in the course
as long as it's relevant but hey you
didn't click on this video to score two
points on this section so let me show
you how to earn the full three points
this point also builds on the last point
and the last point you earn two points
for using one piece of evidence to
support your thesis here you just need
to add one more piece of evidence to
support your thesis and that will get
you three total points however let me
hasten to add in order to earn three
points at least one piece of evidence
has to come from the documents they list
in the prompt the second piece can also
come from another document in the list
or it can come from anywhere in the
course but one of them has to come from
that list okay so now that we've earned
the thesis point and the three points
for evidence let's move to the next
section of the rubric the reasoning
section and for this you can earn up to
one point this point has to do with the
evidence you've already used it's not
for a third piece of evidence here they
want you to go one step beyond
supporting your thesis with your
evidence and go further by demonstrating
how or why your evidence supports your
thesis you're probably like what so let
me try to explain that as simply as i
can essentially you need to do three
things with your evidence you need to
name it explain it and analyze it now to
be fair this isn't the only way to do it
but i think it's helpful to have a
formula so name it like we're actually
gonna write the name of our evidence
here then explain it which is to say
define it for me and then analyze it
show me how that evidence supports your
thesis so let me just give you a student
example with the prompt that we've been
using the articles of confederation is a
prime example of why a strong national
government is better okay i just named
my evidence with the articles the
government could do very little it made
the states more independent by allowing
them to have their own currency and
impose their own taxes there the answer
just explained what the government was
like under the articles and now watch
how it goes one step further and
demonstrates how the evidence supports
the thesis the article's confederation
made it harder to pass laws because each
state has very different agendas and
required over a majority of them to
agree to amend it required a unanimous
decision this makes it nearly impossible
to add a new amendment to change policy
okay that is how you earn the reasoning
point and the final section on the
rubric is for an alternate perspective
and for this you can earn one point now
as you know that i've learned in this
course there is not a general consensus
on day near anything in politics so in a
couple of sentences all you're going to
do here is acknowledge an opposing view
and then you're going to show how your
argument makes better sense of the
evidence now there are other ways to
earn this point you can consult the
rubric if you want to know them but to
me this is the most straightforward way
that students understand show an
alternative perspective and then show
why your argument is better and here's a
student example some people may argue
that the federal government is too large
and that states are best suited to
address the needs of their people
without interference from the federal
government okay that's the summary of
the alternative perspective now why is
my argument better however this is not
true the state governments are not
equipped to handle all the problems they
face without the federal government the
federal government can act with
uniformity to affect all states to
ensure that everyone is guaranteed the
same protections as everyone else and
that's it if you can do all of that you
will certainly earn a six on this essay
best of luck all right i hope that
helped and if you want some more help
then click right here and grab my
ultimate review packet which has
everything you need to get an a in your
class and a five on your exam in may if
you want help on the other kinds of frqs
then check this playlist right here if
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then by all means subscribe and i shall
oblige heimler out
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