ANSWERING
APUSH ESSAY
QUESTIONS
Free response essays, in many ways,
are the very heart of the AP exam.
They measure your reasoning ability
as well as your historical knowledge.
To succeed with these essays, you must
understand the prompts, organize
your information, and write a clear
and accurate response.
Essay Prompt
 All
college-level essay test answers
are written in response to an essay
“prompt.”
 You must answer the question asked
in order to score well.
 Answering essays is a skill that takes
practice.
Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
READ the entire prompt!
Reread & Mark the IMPORTANT WORDS.
Understand your TASK (question verb).
Define any “loaded” TERMS.
Make a quick OUTLINE.
Cover the entire TIME PERIOD.
Determine your THESIS.
Write your ESSAY, using facts to prove your
thesis
1. Read the ENTIRE prompt.

The first mistake that many students make is
in reading and answering only part of the
prompt.
2. Carefully REREAD the prompt
& mark the IMPORTANT WORDS
 Verbs,
 Conjunctions,
and
 the time period
2. Mark the important words
 Analyze
the impact of the American
Revolution on both slavery and the status
of women in the period from 1775 to 1800.
 Compare
and contrast United States foreign
policy after the First World War and after the
Second World War. Consider the periods
1919-1928 and 1945-1950.
2. Mark the important words
 In
what ways did the French and Indian
War (1754-1763) alter the political,
economic and ideological relations
between Britain and its American
colonies? Use your knowledge of the
period 1740-1766 along with the
documents provided.
3. Understand the TASK
Commonly used verbs and explanations for the
tasks they indicate:

Analyze: Explain how AND why something
occurred. Any question that uses “how” and/or
“why” is an analysis question even if the word
“analyze” is not in the prompt.

Discuss or Explain: frequently used in
recent prompts. They should be written as
analysis essays, not merely a list of events
or facts.
3. Understanding the Task:
Commonly used verbs and verb phrases

To what extent: How true is some
development or description of history? AP
essay questions will invariably be about a
complex topic that is not completely true
or false.
 Assess
the validity: How true is a given
statement?
(variant: “Evaluate the validity”)
3. Understanding the Task:
Commonly used verbs and verb phrases

(cont’d)
Evaluate: Which factor was most important?
You usually need to rank several events or factors
and specify which is most and which is least
significant.

Compare AND contrast: Discuss BOTH
similarities AND differences between two
events or periods.
4. Define any “loaded” TERMS in
the prompt that need clarification
Examples:

Assess the validity of the following statement:
“Reform movements in the United States sought
to expand democratic ideals,”


jot down some “democratic ideals” and be prepared to
explain how they are democratic.
“From 1781 to 1789, the Articles of
Confederation provided the United States with
an effective government.” Using . . . your
knowledge of the period, evaluate this
statement.
5. BRAINSTORM: sketch out a
quick, informal OUTLINE
This is crucial in helping you to:
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

Cover the entire question asked,
Organize your response, and
Include as many important details as
possible.
Outlines do not have to be formal,
just sketch or a structure
How did the American Revolution affect American
society? Be sure to explain the political, social and
economic effects during the period 1775-1800.
Political
Economic Social
6: Outline
1919-1928


Alternatively:
Compare and contrast
United States foreign
policy after the First
World War and after the
Second World War.
Consider the periods
1919-1928 and 19451950.
similarities
differences
1945-1950
6. Cover the TIME PERIOD in
the prompt
If the prompt asks you to discuss reform
between 1865 and 1900, you must include
information for the ENTIRE time period.
 Dates included in prompts are not random:
test writers put a lot of thought into them

7.

Develop your thesis
Historical essays require that you
 take
a clear position that responds to the
prompt (state a thesis) and
 defend your thesis with facts.

Thesis: sentence that states a clear position
in response to the prompt
 Better
theses also tell the reader what evidence
the essay will prove the thesis is true – they
give a brief overview of the essay.

[We will discuss developing a thesis in our next session on
answering essays.]
8.

4 -7 well-organized paragraphs, incl’g intro & conclusion


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Write your essay
2-3 lined pages in 35-40 minutes
Write with a goal: Prove and support your thesis using
evidence (facts) and explanation (analysis)
 Discuss/analyze as many relevant facts as possible
 Analysis, analysis, analysis - don’t just list
facts/events. You must explain why they are
significant and/or how they support your thesis.
 Don’t ignore important facts that don’t support your
thesis. Acknowledge them & show why they don’t
undermine your thesis
In-class essays are a rough draft
Summary
READ the ENTIRE prompt!
2. Mark the IMPORTANT WORDS – verbs,
conjunctions, time period
3. Understand your TASK. What exactly what you are
1.
being asked to do?. Consider the entire prompt.
Define any important “loaded” TERM(s).
5. Make a quick OUTLINE. Organize your thinking
4.
before you begin writing.
Cover the entire TIME PERIOD.
7. Determine your THESIS.
8. Write your essay, using facts to support your thesis
6.
Free response essay prompts put a lot
of responsibility on the writer:

Some prompts are very open. Here is an
example of this type of prompt:
 The government under the Articles of
Confederation has been considered a failure.
Describe three actions of the Confederation
government and explain how these actions
may or may not be considered failures.
These prompts require you to define the
terms, specify the time period, and
understand the task.

For instance, read the prompt carefully:


The government under the Articles of Confederation has been
considered a failure. Describe three actions of the
Confederation government and explain how these actions
may or may not be considered failures.
To address the prompt, the following questions must be
answered:



What time period does this question address? [1781-1789]
What were 3 (no more) actions of the Confederation Congress
that you are going to discuss?
How are you defining “failure” or “success”?
Some prompts provide clear time
periods to be addressed:

For instance, here are two prompts that specify
very clearly the time periods to be discussed:
Compare and contrast United States foreign policy
after the First World War and after the Second World
War. Consider the periods 1919-1928 and 1945-1950.
 How did the African American Civil Rights
movement of the 1950s and 1960s address the
failures of Reconstruction?

These prompts require you to limit your
evidence and to define certain terms.

With the first prompt–


Compare and contrast United States foreign policy
after the First World War and after the Second World
War. Consider the periods 1919-1928 and 19451950.
The following need clarifying
Deal only with foreign policy decisions
 You need to pick decisions that are BOTH different
and similar between the early and the later time
periods.


The next prompt–


How did the African American Civil Rights
movement of the 1950s and 1960s address the
failures of Reconstruction?
Requires you to specify

Several “failures of Reconstruction”


Which implies that you know when Reconstruction
occurred.
And to know several very specific results of the later
Civil Rights movement that directly addressed the
failures of Reconstruction.
Practice Question 1

Analyze the impact of the American
Revolution on both slavery and the
status of women in the period from
1775 to 1800.
Practice Question 2

Evaluate the relative importance of the
following as factors promoting Americans
to rebel: parliamentary taxation, restriction
of civil liberties, British military measures
and the legacy of colonial religious and
political ideas.
Practice Question 3

“The United States Constitution of 1787
represented an economic and ideological
victory for the traditional American
political elite.” Assess the validity of that
statement for the period 1781 to 1789.
Practice Question 4

How did economic, geographic, and social
factors encourage the growth of slavery as
an important part of the economy of the
southern colonies between 1607-1775?
An Actual Example

In what ways did the French and Indian
War (1754-63) alter the political, economic
and ideological relations between Britain
and its American colonies? Use your
knowledge of the period 1740-1766 along
with the documents provided to answer
the question.
Tip #1
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Make sure you understand exactly your task,
what you must “prove” in the essay.
Stay strictly within the time period. Don’t
wander.
You must be specific, specific, specific.
Use relevant and time-sensitive PEPS (people,
events, places, significance). Think of PEPS as
proper nouns (words that need to be capitalized).
Never use generalities, i.e. many reforms, lots of
reformers, many things changed.
Tip #2


Organize your thinking BEFORE you write.
This doesn’t need to be a long process
Decide two or three things you need to discuss,
 Organize the facts you have under those headings,
 Check through them to see that you “balance” the
discussion—give each part of the topic equal
discussion.

Outlines do not have to be formal, just
sketch a structure and put your facts
into that structure.
Social
PEPS
PEPS
PEPS
PEPS
PEPS
PEPS
Political
PEPS
Economic
PEPS
PEPS
PEPS
PEPS
Write with clarity and confidence–
don’t be timid!



Be definite. Your thesis should ANSWER the
prompt with your opinion.
Having brainstormed then organized specific facts,
start each paragraph with a clear topic sentence.
Refer to specific facts to support your thinking.
Stick to your structure, refer to your outline as you
write.
Good writing is a problem-solving
situation. Work the process!
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After writing your thesis paragraph, go back and
re-read the prompt.
Ask yourself, “Have I ‘answered’ the prompt with
my thesis?”
What three or four points MUST you make to
support your thesis. Write these down.
As you write, look back at the prompt and at your
thesis. Are you sticking to the topic?
Plan your time so that you can read
your essay before you finish.




Check the clock. Know how much time you have
to produce the essay.
Check your thesis and your outline frequently.
Make sure that you have time to go back and read
quickly through your essay.
Don’t ignore a conclusion paragraph. Sometimes
it makes up for weaknesses earlier in the essay.