AP U.S. History · Free-response skill

Long essay: a claim, what came before, and the change

The move. Answer an essay question with a position and a reason, describe the earlier situation that sets up the question, and explain how a specific development changed it.

How to do it

  1. In a full essay, your thesis makes a claim someone could argue against and gives a reason, usually joined with because. This drill practices the reason: one clear cause stated in one sentence.
  2. For a question about change, describe the situation before the change first. You cannot show that something changed until you have said what it changed from.
  3. Evidence must be specific: a named law, event or document with its year.
  4. Then make the contrast in so many words: before, it was one way; after, it was another. The contrast is what turns a fact into an argument about change.

Practice prompt Try it

Essay question (for practice): How did the Seven Years' War (1754 to 1763) lead Britain to change the way it governed its North American colonies? Answer these building-block parts of such an essay.

  1. Parliament began taxing the colonists directly after 1763. In one sentence, explain why, giving a money reason that came out of the war.
  2. In one or two sentences, describe how strictly Britain enforced its trade laws in the colonies in the decades before 1754.
  3. Say what the Stamp Act of 1765 taxed.
  4. Explain how the purpose of the Stamp Act differed from the purpose of the Navigation Acts of the 1600s.

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 4 points

Model answer, annotated

(a) Parliament began taxing the colonists directly because Britain had run up a huge debt fighting the Seven Years' War and now had to pay for troops to defend the large territory it had won.

  • Point 1 Gives a war-related reason: the war debt and the cost of defending the new territory.

(b) Before 1754, Britain enforced its trade laws loosely: customs officers were few and often bribed, and merchants smuggled goods such as French molasses with little risk of punishment.

  • Point 2 Says enforcement was loose, with smuggling seldom punished.

(c) The Stamp Act taxed printed paper in the colonies, such as newspapers, legal documents, licenses and playing cards.

  • Point 3 Says the act taxed printed paper, with examples.

(d) The Stamp Act was meant to raise money from the colonists to help pay Britain's costs, while the Navigation Acts were meant to control where colonial goods went and who carried them, regulating trade.

  • Point 4 Says both halves: raising revenue versus regulating trade.