AP English Language · Free-response skill

Argument: plan the essay

The move. Plan an argument essay: a defensible thesis that previews two reasons, a concrete situation that supports one reason, commentary that adds to it, and a limit on the position that the essay answers.

How to do it

  1. Write the thesis last in your head and first on the page: decide your position, then name the two reasons you can best support. Each reason becomes a body paragraph.
  2. Evidence must be specific: a named example, an event you know about, a number, or a precise observation from your own life. “Money matters” is a general statement; a particular case that a reader can picture is evidence.
  3. Commentary explains how the evidence proves the reason. Use because, so or this shows, and say something the evidence alone does not.
  4. Answering an objection makes an argument stronger. Name a real cost or exception, grant what is true in it, then say why your position still holds, perhaps in a narrower form.

Practice prompt Try it

The following is original, written for Peakscor practice.

Many high schools now require every student to complete a personal finance course before graduating. Supporters say it is the most practical class a student can take. Critics say it takes the place of courses in subjects that students cannot easily learn on their own.

Take a position on whether high schools should require a personal finance course. Then answer each part.

  1. Write a thesis that takes a position on the question and gives two reasons for it.
  2. Say which of your two reasons you will support. Then describe one situation a student or recent graduate could face that supports it: say what choice the person has to make, and what happens as a result of choosing one way.
  3. Write two or three sentences of commentary. Name the reason again, and say something about the situation that part b did not already say, such as what the person did not know or what the choice costs over time.
  4. Name one objection or situation that limits your position, and explain why your position still holds.

Write each part, then check yourself against the checklist. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Check yourself and see a model answer

Checklist

Our own checklist of what a full answer does, one line per point. Tick each one your response earns.

0 of 8 points

Model answer, annotated

(a) High schools should require a personal finance course, because most graduates will soon make borrowing decisions with lasting costs, and because many students have no one at home who can teach them how those decisions work.

  • Point 1 Takes a clear position: schools should require the course.
  • Point 2 Gives two reasons, joined by “and because.”

(b) I will support the first reason, that graduates soon make borrowing decisions with lasting costs. A recent graduate buying a used car is offered two loans at the same interest rate: a four-year loan, or a six-year loan with a lower monthly payment. If she picks the six-year loan because the monthly payment looks easier, she ends up paying more in total interest.

  • Point 3 Names the choice: a four-year or a six-year loan.
  • Point 4 Names the result of one option: more total interest on the six-year loan.

(c) This is exactly the kind of borrowing decision with a lasting cost that the first reason describes. The graduate does not know to compare the total cost of each loan instead of the monthly payment, and the mistake keeps costing her for six years, which is the comparison a required course would teach.

  • Point 5 Restates the first reason: a borrowing decision with a lasting cost.
  • Point 6 Adds what part b did not say: she does not know to compare total cost instead of the monthly payment, and a required course would teach that comparison.

(d) The strongest objection is that a required course takes a place in the schedule that could go to a second year of a world language or a science elective. But a personal finance course can be a single semester, and unlike those electives, its lessons apply to every graduate within a few years, so the trade is worth making.

  • Point 7 Names a real cost: the course takes a schedule slot from other subjects.
  • Point 8 Answers it: a single semester, and lessons every graduate will use soon.