Common Mistakes on Q3 of the AP Lang Exam | How to Write an Argument | Coach Hall Writes
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful video, the presenter shares valuable advice for students tackling question three of the AP Language exam. Having scored numerous essays at a conference, the speaker emphasizes the importance of providing specific evidence to avoid low scores. The video offers a clear distinction between essays that make generalizations and those that provide concrete examples, illustrating how to improve writing through detailed evidence and consistent commentary. The presenter also highlights the significance of developing a strong concession and refutation to avoid appearing one-sided and to strengthen the essay's reasoning. With practical examples and a relatable analogy, the video guides students on how to craft a coherent line of reasoning and plan their essays effectively. The speaker reassures viewers that focusing on their areas of knowledge can lead to persuasive and well-written essays, regardless of the topic's complexity.
Takeaways
- 📝 The importance of using specific evidence in essays for the AP Language Exam cannot be overstated; it's crucial for achieving higher scores.
- 🔍 Students often fail to provide concrete evidence, leading to lower scores of 1 or 2, which is a common mistake to avoid.
- 📈 Writing styles that include claims without supporting facts or evidence are seen as generalizations and not persuasive.
- 🌐 Including specific examples, such as mentioning a particular country or state, can elevate an essay from a score of 2 to 3.
- 📚 The difference between a score of 3 and 4 lies in the consistency and quality of commentary alongside specific evidence.
- 🏀 A strong authorial voice and accurate facts can make an essay convincing, but insufficient commentary can prevent it from achieving the highest score.
- 💡 Students should choose topics they are knowledgeable about to demonstrate a strong voice and provide persuasive arguments.
- ✅ Setting up a developed concession and refutation is essential for a well-rounded argument and to avoid appearing narrow-minded.
- 🤔 Acknowledging the merits of the opposing viewpoint before refuting it is a key strategy for a stronger essay.
- 📊 Including evidence from current events, history, or personal experience adds credibility and specificity to the essay.
- 🔗 Maintaining a clear line of reasoning throughout the essay ensures logical coherence and helps the reader follow the writer's argument.
- 📋 Planning essays in advance can help establish a logical flow and line of reasoning, which is beneficial for the final score.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The video focuses on common mistakes students make on question three of the AP Language exam and provides tips to improve their performance based on the 2020 rubric.
Why is specific evidence crucial in essays according to the new rubric?
-Specific evidence is crucial because essays with only generalizations or insufficient specific evidence tend to score low, receiving either a 1 or a 2.
What is the difference between a generalization and specific evidence in an essay?
-A generalization is a broad statement without supporting facts, which can come across as an opinion. Specific evidence, on the other hand, involves concrete examples or facts that prove a claim.
What are some examples of writing styles that warrant either a generalization or specific evidence?
-Examples include essays that are more like rants without concrete evidence and essays that have a claim but lack detailed support or examples to substantiate the argument.
How can students improve their essays to score higher on the AP Language exam?
-Students can improve by providing specific evidence, having a consistent line of reasoning, and ensuring their commentary is strong and connects back to the thesis.
What is the significance of commentary in an essay?
-Commentary is important as it helps to connect the evidence to the thesis, explains the evidence, and supports the claims made in the essay. Inconsistent commentary can lead to a lower score.
Why is it important to have a developed concession and refutation in the essay?
-A developed concession and refutation is important because it acknowledges the merit of the opposing viewpoint and strengthens the writer's argument by addressing potential counterarguments.
What is the key difference between an essay that scores a 3 out of 4 and a 4 out of 4 in terms of evidence and commentary?
-Both scores have specific evidence and detail, but essays that score a 4 out of 4 have more consistent and effective commentary that strongly supports all claims in the essay.
What is the role of the authorial voice in an essay?
-The authorial voice adds personality and conviction to the essay, making it more engaging and persuasive. A strong voice can make the essay stand out, even when discussing a topic that may not be inherently complex.
What is the advice given for choosing a topic for the essay?
-The advice is to choose a topic that the student knows well and can discuss with confidence and a strong voice. It's not necessary to choose a highly sophisticated topic; what matters is the evidence and commentary provided.
What is the 'line of reasoning' and why is it important in an essay?
-A line of reasoning is a logical and coherent sequence of arguments that supports the essay's thesis. It is important because it ensures that the essay is clear, logical, and easy for the reader to follow.
How can students ensure they have a clear line of reasoning in their essays?
-Students can ensure a clear line of reasoning by planning their essays in advance, connecting all the dots for the reader, and ensuring that the examples chosen are clearly related and support the overall argument.
Outlines
📚 Importance of Specific Evidence in AP Lang Essays
The speaker starts by addressing common mistakes made by students on question three of the AP Language Exam, emphasizing the critical role of specific evidence in essays. They share insights from a conference where they scored numerous essays. The key advice is to use concrete examples rather than generalizations to avoid low scores. The speaker illustrates the difference between generalizations and specific evidence through writing samples, explaining how the level of commentary can affect the essay's score, and stressing the need for a consistent and detailed analysis to achieve a top score.
🏀 Strengths in Writing: Voice and Knowledge
The speaker discusses how essays that stand out often showcase the student's strengths, such as a deep understanding of a subject, which gives the essay a strong voice. They recount an essay about a basketball player that was well-written but lacked sufficient commentary for a top score. The speaker encourages students to choose topics they are knowledgeable about, as this can make the writing more convincing. They also highlight the importance of setting up a developed concession and refutation to avoid narrow-minded arguments and to strengthen the essay's reasoning.
🔍 Developing a Coherent Line of Reasoning
The speaker emphasizes the need for a clear line of reasoning in essays, where each idea should logically connect to the next. They discuss how some students struggle to maintain a coherent flow of ideas throughout their essays. The speaker provides a strategy for planning essays in advance to establish a clear line of reasoning before writing. They also mention their plans to upload weekly videos to assist students with AP Language Exam preparation, offering support and resources to help students navigate the new rubrics and achieve success in their exams.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Specific Evidence
💡Generalizations
💡Rubric
💡Line of Reasoning
💡Concession and Refutation
💡Commentary
💡Authorial Voice
💡Rhetorical Analysis
💡Consistency
💡Scope
💡Planning
Highlights
The importance of providing specific evidence in essays for the AP Lang exam, as it is crucial for achieving higher scores according to the new rubric.
Generalizations without specific evidence result in lower scores of 1 or 2, emphasizing the need for concrete examples.
The necessity for students to understand the difference between generalizations and specific evidence to improve their writing.
The use of rhetorical modes such as compare and contrast to enhance writing and connect it to the thesis.
The distinction between a score of 3 and 4 on the rubric lies in the level of execution and consistency of commentary.
Essays with strong authorial voice and accurate facts can be convincing, even on less sophisticated topics.
The need for students to connect the dots for the reader by providing commentary that explains the absurdity or reasoning behind their claims.
The ability to write about topics within one's own strengths can lead to more persuasive and convincing essays.
The significance of setting up a developed concession and refutation to avoid narrow-minded arguments and strengthen the essay's reasoning.
Acknowledging the merit of the opposing side before refuting it is essential for a well-rounded argument.
The importance of a clear and logical line of reasoning throughout the essay to maintain coherence and avoid confusion for the reader.
Including evidence from current events, history, or personal experience can provide a stronger argument than hypotheticals.
Planning essays in advance can help establish a clear line of reasoning and improve the overall quality of the writing.
The upcoming series of weekly videos aimed at helping students prepare for the AP Lang exam, including a cram session for the exam.
The encouragement for students to not be intimidated by the new rubrics and to focus on understanding and applying the requirements effectively.
The advice that the topic of the essay does not have to be highly sophisticated; what matters is the evidence and commentary provided.
The example of how an essay about a basketball player with a strong voice and accurate facts could have achieved a higher score with more commentary.
The emphasis on the need for students to think critically about the scope of their essays, especially when aiming for a score of 4 out of 4.
The caution against starting with a strong example, like Columbus, and then losing the thread of the argument in subsequent paragraphs.
Transcripts
hey guys welcome back to coach all
rights in today's video we're gonna be
looking at common mistakes that students
make on question three of the AP lang
exam recently I went to a conference in
which I scored close to a hundred essays
of the overrated prompt from 2019 but
based on the 20/20 rubric and let me
tell you it was an eye-opening
experience so this video has all my tips
that I'm gonna be giving to my own
students to help them be more successful
on the 20/20 exam so the biggest piece
of advice I have for students is to make
sure you have specific evidence I don't
think a lot of students who wrote these
essays truly understood what specific
evidence was it's something that I'm
gonna be hammering into my own students
between now and May as well because it's
absolutely crucial based on the new
rubric so if you have generalizations or
only some specific evidence you're gonna
get either a 1 or a 2 and Roby so let's
look at some of the writing styles that
warrant either a generalization or some
specific evidence so keep in mind that
the examples I'm gonna show you are not
full paragraphs let alone an essay it's
just representative of the style so here
we basically just have a claim there's
no facts no evidence to prove this it's
just a generalization so it comes across
as an opinion we saw a lot of essays
that came across as a rant in the
generalization type style now this one
is very indicative of the essays that
were close they just needed to dig
deeper and part of the reason I say that
is because the student clearly has an
idea here they have a claim that they
try to support but they just don't give
concrete evidence and so it says other
countries here if we had a specific
example of another country and really
developed that example that would be
what it took to improve that to a three
instead of a two in my opinion now again
it's just a simple sample of the type of
writing this one is what I believe would
warrant a three possibly afford
depending on the level of commentary but
notice it's already longer than the
previous example and we see two specific
examples in this one first we see a
reference to Arkansas so we see a
specific example about what testing is
like in that state and then we see a
reference to Finland so instead of
saying other countries we already have
an exact country that we're talking
about here and we see this mode of
compare and contrast so this
is important because some of the modes
that you study for rhetorical analysis
are modes that you can use in your own
writing and so this hinges on specific
evidence so what's the difference
between a 3 out of 4 and a 4 out of 4 in
row B well here's the thing I actually
saw a couple essays that unfortunately
got it too and it's not because they
didn't have good commentary they
actually did the problem was they didn't
have specific evidence so that's the
thing that students really need to
understand is that a3 and a4 both have
specific evidence they have detail they
have a line of reasoning now once you
have that specific evidence then we look
at the commentary and essays that scored
a3 tended to have a bit more
inconsistent commentary so they might
have evidence but they might not have
commentary to really back it up and
connect it back to the thesis to really
explain it
whereas a4 tended to have very
consistent evidence in commentary to
support all of the claims in the essay
so that was the difference it was just
the level of execution and consistency
of the commentary so if you're striving
for a4 you've really got to think of the
scope of your essay you need to think
about having multiple claims with
evidence and commentary so let's talk
about that commentary for a second
because there was one essay that really
stood out to me as being very
well-written
but it just didn't have enough
commentary to warrant a 4 out of 4 in
row B so this particular essay was
actually about a basketball player and
the student had an amazing authorial
voice this is where when students play
to their strengths you can really tell
this student knew all about this players
stats it was very convincing and it was
written in a way in terms of style where
somebody like me who doesn't really
follow a professional basketball could
still understand however there were a
few sentences throughout where after we
had all this evidence the commentary was
just very limited things like this is
absurd and quite frankly I understood
why it was absurd but I had to think
about it a little bit too much you need
to connect the dots for your reader if
the student had said something like this
is absurd because and had just continued
that line of reasoning with that
commentary a little bit more I would
have felt more confident about giving it
a 4 but I loved the voice and so that's
something that I think students need to
understand too is that we don't always
need you to choose the
these highly sophisticated topics
sometimes it's much more convincing and
much more persuasive if you choose
something you know because then you have
a strong voice and so this was a classic
example of it where the student had a
strong voice they were able to provide
very accurate facts I trusted the
student the essay read like something
that would be in like ESPN magazine or
something it was just that good however
it was a bit too limited on the
commentary to warrant a four out of four
that basketball essay was one that
really stood out to me so much so that I
gave it to one of the other readers at
my table to read because I really
enjoyed it and then another reader at my
table gave me one to read about
rollerskating because she thought it was
really good and then as we were talking
about the essays we heard other essays
that stood out from other tables one was
about broccoli one was about travel mugs
one was about amusement parks so notice
that at no point here did I mention
things like the electoral college now
that's not to say that an essay about
that is bad because it's absolutely not
in fact I read one that was amazing
about that very topic however I think
sometimes students think that they need
to write about these super intelligent
concepts and if you can do it absolutely
go for it but let's be honest not
everybody has taken american government
not everybody can write about the
electoral college and how it's overrated
or maybe you don't even think it is so
sometimes you just gotta play to your
strengths and if you are more convincing
if you're writing about travel softball
then write about travel softball but
have evidence and commentary if it boils
down to evidence in commentary then it
doesn't necessarily matter which topic
you choose as long as you actually
follow the tasks on the rubric itself so
hopefully that gives some of you a peace
of mind because a lot of the essays that
stood out to us or ones that were a
breath of fresh air because the student
did what they needed to do and they did
it well because it was in their
wheelhouse another crucial skill that
students need to work on is setting up a
developed concession and refutation and
that's because quite frankly a lot of
the essays that I read that did not have
one seem to be a bit narrow-minded and
seemed to have loopholes in their line
of reasoning and that set up a faulty
line of reasoning which equates to a two
out of four and evidence and commentary
so a concession is basically when you
ignore
that the other side has merit and then
you refute it by asserting your own
position and so some students did this
by doing it in the form of a single
sentence which was refreshing to see in
some sense however I think students need
to understand that they can actually
develop this into a full paragraph some
students did this as their first body
paragraph others did it as their last
body paragraph but those arguments
tended to be much more well developed
than a single sentence so what I think
students need to realize with the
overrated prompt is that if it's
overrated it means lots of other people
like it so you need to acknowledge the
merit of that topic before refuting it
so let's look at some examples of how we
can do that here
so we're gonna continue with this idea
of standardized testing and so we need
to acknowledge the benefits of
standardized testing and so we've done
that here you can see it says that it
provides Norman so it measures students
abilities it can be beneficial so all
these words suggest that there is merit
to standardized testing then we're gonna
see a switch because it says however so
that indicates that we're about to
refute it now this doesn't have to just
be a concession and refutation done one
time you can actually continue with this
and have it be a multi-step process the
previous slide acknowledged that while
standardized tests have merit they
actually cause too much stress for
students and that's why they're
overrated so that's our claim but now we
need to prove it and so one way to do
that is to actually set up a concession
and refutation so we're gonna focus in
on one type of stress and that is going
to be the financial stress so you'll see
that we have the word yes here that
indicates a concession and then we have
the word but which indicates a
refutation and so notice that it's a
very systematic approach here we're
anticipating an argument that someone
would have against our claim and then
we're refuting that and so it's a very
layered approach here so this is how you
develop a line of reasoning now that we
have in this case a layered concession
and refutation we need to make sure that
we have specific evidence in this
paragraph in order to set ourselves up
for the potential of either a three or a
four and evidence in commentary and so
to do that we need specific evidence so
one thing I would like students to
remember is that generally speaking it
is better to include evidence from
current events or history if possible
but you can also include personal
experience of
hypotheticals because those are gonna
come across as generalizations so if you
can name a specific college that doesn't
take test scores that would be something
to bring up or if you have personal
experience in this matter that could be
something to develop this as well but
make sure you have specific evidence
I've mentioned the phrase line of
reasoning a few times in this video and
so I want to take a second to try to
explain what it means in terms of
question three and so one of the best
ways to describe it that I've heard so
far is a monkey is walking and he picks
up a banana he keeps walking and he
picks up a banana he keeps walking and
he picks up a watermelon and that's
where the story kind of ended and the
idea is that you would expect him to
pick up a banana but he picks up a
watermelon so it's a bad line of
reasoning and so I was thinking about
this story and I was like well wait a
minute what if he's grocery shopping
then he could pick up a watermelon
well that wasn't specified well why
would a monkey be grocery shopping
what if it's Curious George and the man
in the yellow hat well then it would
make more sense
but that wasn't conveyed to the reader
so a line of reasoning means that it has
to be logical and it has to be coherent
you have to connect all the dots for
your reader that's why that particular
story about Russell Westbrook was not a
perfect score for me because there were
certain things that I had to infer and
as a reader on the exam I can't do that
and so one of the things that I think
students struggled with in certain
instances on cue three is that the
examples they chose were not very
clearly related I read one essay in
particular where a student started out
by talking about Columbus and I was like
oh man I wish I had thought of Columbus
that's a great idea but Columbus was one
body paragraph the other body paragraphs
talked about different things and by the
time I finished the essay we were so far
away from Columbus that I wasn't sure
why we even started with Columbus and so
that was simply just a student who
didn't have a clear line of reasoning
it's not that the student didn't have
good ideas it's that the ideas weren't
connected for the reader and so that's
something I think we need to think about
a little bit more as we plan one of
those tips that I have because I did
actually try to write these essays with
my students I did a video on this if you
guys are curious I'll link it above is
planning these essays out in advance
really truly can help because you can
establish your line of reasoning before
you actually start writing your
honestly guys I know it can be a bit
intimidating to be the first cohort to
use these new rubrics in 2020 but I've
got you covered because in the coming
months I'm gonna be uploading weekly
videos in order to help you prepare for
the AP legging exam including a cram for
the exam series and the month leading up
to the test so make sure you're
subscribed and until next time guys
happy writing
Просмотреть больше связанных видео
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)