The KEYS to Finding Evidence for ARGUMENT Essays!

Summary

The video script offers valuable advice to AP students on how to effectively generate evidence for their argument prompts. It emphasizes that students, despite being teenagers, possess a wealth of unique experiences that can be applied to various prompts. The presenter introduces a method to help students select the best examples to support their reasoning, known as 'S Cubed'. This involves considering subjects learned in school, societal elements from mass media and other sources, and personal experiences or hypothetical scenarios, with a caution that the latter can weaken an argument if not concrete. The video also provides a shout out to Ms. Helton and her students, encouraging them to share their AP exam results. To further assist students in constructing their essays, the presenter outlines a process for organizing thoughts and planning body paragraphs before diving into writing detailed examples. The video concludes with a teaser for the next video, which will focus on crafting topic sentences.

Takeaways

• 📚 The AP link student often struggles with generating evidence for argument prompts due to a perceived lack of life experience.
• 💡 The prompts are designed to be accessible from diverse angles, and students have more unique experiences than they may realize.
• 🎯 Remember 'S Cubed' for selecting evidence: Subjects, Society, and Self.
• 🏫 Subjects: Draw from knowledge in school subjects like English, History, Math, Science, and Technology.
• 🌐 Society: Consider mass media, news, entertainment, sports, literature, art, or religion for examples.
• 📰 Use recent controversies or common media ratings as examples from society to support your argument.
• 🧐 Be cautious with the 'Self' category, as hypothetical examples can weaken an argument and are vulnerable to fallacies.
• 📝 Organize your thoughts and examples before writing to construct topic sentences and a strong line of reasoning.
• 🔑 The order of importance and validity of evidence is Subjects, Society, then Self.
• 📈 Practice is essential to refine the process of selecting evidence and generating topic sentences.
• 👍 Shout out to Ms. Helton and the Franklin Simpson High Wildcats for their dedication to AP exam preparation.
• 📈 Encourage students to share their AP exam results in the comments section after the exam.

Q & A

What is the main challenge AP students often face when generating evidence for an argument prompt?

The main challenge is that students, being teenagers, may not believe they have much life experience that can relate to the prompt, making it difficult to find evidence to support their arguments.

What is the purpose of argument prompts in AP exams?

Argument prompts are designed to be widely accessible from diverse angles, allowing students to draw from various sources of knowledge to construct their arguments.

What does the acronym 'S' in 'S cubed' stand for and how is it used in the context of selecting evidence for an essay?

The 'S' in 'S cubed' stands for 'Subjects', 'Society', and 'Self'. It is a method to help students mine their background knowledge to select the best proof to support their reasoning for an essay by considering experiences from school subjects, societal elements, and personal experiences.

What is the first step in picking an example to support an argument according to the script?

The first step is to figure out what personal experience will fit with what you're trying to prove by considering subjects studied in school.

How can students use societal elements to find examples for their argument?

Students can consider elements from mass media, news sources, entertainment, sports, literature, art, or religion to draw examples that can support their argument.

What is the importance of following the direction of the thesis when picking examples for an argument?

Following the direction of the thesis ensures that the examples selected align with the overall argument and help to construct a coherent and persuasive essay.

What is a potential issue with using hypothetical examples to support an argument?

Hypothetical examples can weaken an argument because they are not concrete and can be easily challenged by questioning their validity or possibility.

Why is it advised to use caution when relying on personal or hypothetical examples in an argument?

Relying heavily on personal or hypothetical examples can make an argument vulnerable to fallacies and weaken its overall strength, as these examples may not be as universally accepted or convincing as those drawn from established subjects or societal共识 (consensus).

What is the significance of generating topic sentences before writing the body paragraphs of an essay?

Generating topic sentences helps to organize thoughts, provides a clear direction for each paragraph, and ensures that the essay's arguments are structured logically and coherently.

What is the order of importance and validity of evidence suggested by the script when selecting examples for an argument?

The order of importance and validity of evidence suggested by the script is Subjects, Society, and then Self, with the strongest examples often coming from what is known in school subjects.

How can students practice using the 'S cubed' method and organizing their thoughts before an exam?

Students can practice by using blank organizers, which can be found in the description of the video, to plan out their essays, noting general examples and how they relate to their thesis.

What does the script suggest for students who feel they lack life experience relevant to the AP exam prompts?

The script suggests that all students have plenty of unique experiences that can fit into any prompt given, and it encourages them to draw from their knowledge in school subjects, societal elements, and personal experiences to find relevant evidence.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Overcoming Challenges in AP Argumentative Writing

The first paragraph addresses the common struggle of AP students with generating evidence for argument prompts. The speaker reassures students that despite their youth, they possess a wealth of experiences that can be applied to various prompts. The paragraph introduces the idea that prompts are designed to be accessible from diverse perspectives. It also outlines a strategy for selecting evidence by remembering the letter 'S' and considering subjects, society, and self when looking for examples to support an argument. The speaker uses a specific thesis related to the application of warning labels to content as an example to demonstrate how to apply this strategy.

05:00

📚 Structuring an Argument with S-Cubed Strategy

The second paragraph delves into the specifics of the S-Cubed strategy for selecting evidence to support an argument. It explains that the first 'S' stands for subjects, where students should draw from their knowledge in school subjects. The second 'S' stands for society, where examples can be taken from mass media, news, entertainment, sports, literature, art, or religion. The speaker provides a practical example of how to use recent controversies and media ratings as evidence. The third 'S' represents self, which includes personal experiences, family, friends, or hypothetical examples. However, a caution is given that hypothetical examples can weaken an argument if not concrete. The paragraph concludes with advice on the importance of practice and the next steps in constructing topic sentences.

Keywords

💡Argument Prompt

An argument prompt is a type of writing task that requires a student to construct an argument based on a given statement or question. In the context of the video, it is a critical component of the AP (Advanced Placement) exam, where students are expected to generate evidence and reasoning to support their argument. The video aims to help students overcome the challenge of finding evidence for their argument.

💡Evidence

Evidence in the context of the video refers to the facts, examples, or information that a student uses to support their argument in response to an argument prompt. The video emphasizes the importance of selecting the right evidence to strengthen the argument and provides strategies for students to identify and use personal, societal, or hypothetical examples effectively.

💡AP Exam

The AP Exam, or Advanced Placement Exam, is a standardized test for high school students in the United States. It is designed to assess their advanced knowledge in various subjects. The video is aimed at helping students prepare for the AP English Language and Composition exam, specifically in crafting arguments for the argument prompt section.

💡Thesis

A thesis is a statement that presents the main idea or argument of a piece of writing. In the video, the thesis serves as a guiding principle for the direction of the argument that the student will construct. It is crucial for the student to align their examples and reasoning with the thesis to create a coherent and persuasive essay.

💡S-Cubed

S-Cubed is a mnemonic strategy introduced in the video to help students select evidence for their argument. It stands for Subjects, Society, and Self. The strategy encourages students to draw examples from their academic subjects, societal contexts, and personal experiences to support their argument. The video uses this method to demonstrate how students can find relevant and compelling evidence for their essays.

💡Subjects

In the context of the S-Cubed strategy, Subjects refers to the various academic disciplines such as English, History, Math, Science, and Technology. The video suggests that students often find their strongest examples for an argument within these subjects, drawing from their knowledge and experiences in these areas of study.

💡Society

Society, as part of the S-Cubed strategy, encompasses elements such as mass media, news sources, entertainment, sports, literature, art, and religion. The video encourages students to consider societal norms and common experiences when selecting examples for their argument, as these can resonate with a broader audience and provide widely relatable evidence.

💡Self

Self in the S-Cubed strategy refers to personal experiences, including those of the student, their family, friends, or even hypothetical scenarios. The video warns that while personal anecdotes can be powerful, hypothetical examples can weaken an argument if not constructed carefully, as they are not concrete and can be easily challenged.

💡Topic Sentence

A topic sentence is the opening sentence of a paragraph that presents the main idea or argument of that paragraph. The video discusses the importance of constructing compelling topic sentences that align with the chosen evidence and thesis. These sentences set the stage for the body paragraphs and guide the reader through the writer's line of reasoning.

💡Mass Media

Mass Media is a category under the 'Society' aspect of the S-Cubed strategy. It includes news, entertainment, and other forms of media that reach a large audience. The video uses mass media as an example source for evidence, particularly citing recent controversies surrounding the changing of year-end holiday titles and materials as a societal example that can be used to support an argument.

💡Media Ratings

Media Ratings refer to the systems used to classify and rate media content based on factors such as age-appropriateness, violence, and explicit content. In the video, the speaker uses media ratings as an example of how society commonly agrees on labeling certain content as troubling, thereby supporting the argument for the appropriateness of cautionary labels on such content.

Highlights

Struggles with generating evidence in response to the argument prompt are common among AP students.

Teenagers often feel they lack life experience to relate to prompts.

The speaker provides quick and easy tips for selecting evidence to support reasoning.

The AP prompts are designed to be widely accessible from diverse angles.

The importance of ordering thoughts to pick evidence and construct topic sentences.

Acknowledges the students of Ms. Helton and Franklin Simpson High School.

Thesis direction should guide the selection of examples for body paragraphs.

The speaker introduces the concept of 'S Cubed' for selecting examples.

Subjects (S) refers to school subjects as a source for strong examples.

Society (S) involves drawing examples from mass media, news, entertainment, etc.

The speaker uses recent controversies and media ratings as examples to support the argument.

An organizer is used to plan out the essay and identify categories of examples.

Self (S) is the third category, involving personal experiences or hypothetical examples.

A warning about the potential weakness of arguments based on hypothetical examples.

The importance of practicing with organizers before the exam.

Link to blank organizers provided in the video description for practice.

The video concludes with a teaser for the next video on generating topic sentences.

Transcripts

the typical AP link student often

struggles with generating evidence in

response to the argument prompt but why

is this well for the most part it's

because you're all teenagers and you may

not think you have much life experience

that can relate to any prompt that

you're given so what are you going to do

when you're taking your exam and you run

into some trouble because you need to

find evidence for the prop that's given

to you just give up no way you're going

to let me show you some quick and easy

tips right now that will help you pick

the perfect evidence to support your

reasoning when it comes to answering

your argument prompt on test day look

though some of you may not believe it

you yes you all have plenty of unique

experiences that will fit into whatever

prompt is given to you the prompts are

purposely built to be widely accessible

from diverse angles now you may be

thinking that I should hold the phone

because this isn't a topic sentence

video it's an Evidence video and I

haven't even given you topic sentence

tips yet but fear not because today I'm

going to quickly show you how you want

to order your thoughts so that you can

pick your evidence and begin to

generally construct your topic sentence

and then we'll cover topic sentences in

our next video as we get into this video

I do want to give a quick shout out to

Ms Helton and the Franklin Simpson High

Wildcats to Ms Helton students please

consider yourself blessed to have

someone as awesome at the helm of your

class and when you own your AP exams

this spring make sure you tell me how

you did in the comments below this video

now back to the show so when you're

writing an argument and You Begin

picking your examples for your body

paragraphs you want to make sure that

you follow the direction of your thesis

before I show you the thesis we're going

to be working with I want to remind you

of the prompt that we're responding to

it comes from the Amsco Lang and comp

textbook and it can be seen right here

on your screen

[Applause]

[Music]

thank you

and the thesis we're going to rely on to

provide us with the direction that we

need is actually going to show up right

here although many individuals can find

just about any situation offensive and

it's incredibly unrealistic to apply

warning labels to everything placing

cautionary labels and ratings on

commonly agreed upon troubling content

is appropriate based on the thesis I

just showed I have to make a few moves

in my argument the first move I have to

make is to concede that anyone can find

just about anything offensive and I have

to concede that it's incredibly

unrealistic to apply warning labels to

everything I actually think that I can

prove both of those things in one

paragraph As Long As I use the right

examples then I need to produce another

part of my essay that argues that there

is content out there that people can

commonly agree upon as being troubling

and I need to then explain how labeling

such things is appropriate and I

actually think I can prove both of these

elements in one to two paragraphs of

course that is if I pick the right

examples so let me show you how to do

that the first thing you want to do when

picking an example is to figure out what

experience that you have that will fit

with what you're trying to prove the

easiest way to do this is by remembering

one letter and that's the letter s yes

rather than remembering a bunch of other

acronyms if you just remember the letter

S and you Cube it then you'll be able to

start your thought processes that will

help you mine your background knowledge

so you can select the best proof that

will support your line of reasoning for

your essay so what does s cubed actually

mean well the first s stands for

subjects yes think about all the

subjects that you take in school English

History math science technology most of

the time your strongest examples will

come from what you know in these subject

areas so take a few moments and mull

over if anything comes to mind that can

help prove your case based on your

thesis for whatever prompt you're

responding to let me do that right now

foreign

can I think of an example that I learned

from any of my school subjects that

prove that anyone can find just about

anything offensive not off the top of my

head so I'm going to actually jump to

the next s which stands for society when

you consider elements of society to draw

examples from you want to consider

things that you've learned from mass

media news sources Entertainment Sports

literature art or religion now can I

think of examples from the news that

could help me prove that anyone can find

just about anything offensive heck yes I

can and I'm going to reveal what that

will be in just a minute but can I also

think of examples from the society

category that can help me prove that

people can commonly agree upon

Troublesome content and when to label it

yes again so what I'm going to do is

this I'm going to fill in a quick

organizer like the one that you're about

to see when I do I'm going to just check

the boxes about what categories I'm

going to pull from then I'm going to in

a general sense label what my examples

actually are I don't want to get to

specifics right now because that would

take way too much time I'm just trying

to plan out my essay right here so this

needs to be quick and if I keep things

General it will help me when I generate

delicious topic sentences for each of my

body paragraphs so check out what I'm

going to do I'm going to check the

society box check the mass media box and

then I'm going to generally label my

first example as recent controversies

surrounding the changing of the year and

holiday titles and materials what you

can know is that when I put an example

in my body paragraph I'll be

specifically describing some recent

changes that have been made to year-end

holiday titles and materials but I'll

get specific when I start actually

writing the paragraphs right now once

again we're just planning since I'm

going to be pulling my example to prove

that people can commonly agree upon some

troubling content from the society

section as well I'd check the society

box again click mass media again and

then I label my example somewhat

specifically as common media ratings and

there you have it I'm going to use media

ratings to prove the second leg of my

argument as to how warning labels can be

appropriate especially because there are

things that people agree upon when it

comes to well the media ratings if you

want to practice with organizers like

this you can find blank ones linked

right in the description below this

video right by where you can find things

like the like button for this video or

the Subscribe button for this channel

the super things button if you really

appreciate this video's advice and the

channel membership button for those of

you looking to potentially support the

garden of English and its content

creation for less than one coffee a

month now you may have noticed that I

haven't got to the third s yet and

that's okay because I'm going to right

now as you search for examples you may

also feel free to pull from the self

that's what this third s stands for yes

you can readily use examples from your

own personal experience you can also

readily use examples from the lives of

your family friends or acquaintances or

you can even generate hypothetical

examples to support your argument but I

do want to give you a warning about this

last category the weakest examples for

arguments often come from this one

especially if you're constructing

hypothetical examples which are just

examples that aren't actually real but

could possibly be real if you're

argument relies on hypotheticals it can

become quickly full of fallacies which

are areas where your reasoning is

exceptionally vulnerable and weak the

easiest way to challenge an argument

that's built on hypothetical examples is

merely to ask this question what if that

example or those examples didn't happen

because they're not concrete enough to

say that they did we could just ask if

they didn't Boom the argument's dead

crumbles like a stack of cards so when

you're selecting evidence to support

your thesis just remember s cubed also

remember the order of importance and

validity of evidence subjects Society

self once you consider some examples

make sure that you generally note those

examples that you're going to choose

because it's going to help you generate

your topic sentences like I mentioned

earlier remembering one letter three

times is pretty easy and so is generally

noting your evidence but you still need

to practice before your exam and you

need to learn how to generate topic

sentences that will help you create a

strong line of reasoning for your

argument and it just so happens that if

you want to learn how to do that all you

need to do is click on the video that's

about to show up right here

[Applause]

[Music]

ah not fall they take him in the spring

take them in the spring it comes from

the ampo oh nope reread checks what I'm

not eating cereal here ridiculous