THE ARGUMENT ESSAY
SIX PARTS
AP Argument Prompt 2012
Consider the distinct perspectives expressed in the following statements.
If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful
beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish
virtually anything, including those things that other people are
certain are impossible.
~William Lyon Phelps, American educator, journalist, and professor (1865-1943)
I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some
measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to
believe any philosophy, not even mine.
~Bertrand Russell, British author, mathematician, and philosopher (1872-1970)
In a well organized essay, take a position on the
relationship between certainty and doubt. Support your
argument with appropriate evidence and examples.
1. INTRODUCTION HOOK
(EXORDIUM)
• Introduce the subject (or problem) by gaining your
readers’ interest and willingness to listen
• Start with some kind of hook. Probably the best
way to do this is with exemplification—a concrete
real or, if need be, hypothetical example.
GENERAL = WEAK INTRO HOOKS
• Certainty and doubt are inevitable parts
of life.
• Many of us have experienced being
certain of an idea that we later came to
discover was untrue.
• You’re in a certain situation where you
need confidence. That voice of doubt
will not be quiet and it negatively
impacts your performance.
SPECIFIC = IMPROVED HOOKS
Weak: Certainty and doubt are inevitable parts of life.
Stronger: The day after the Union Army suffered horrific
casualties at the Battle of Fredericksburg, President
Lincoln asked Isaac Arnold, a good friend and
advisor, to come to his office. To Arnold’s surprise,
Lincoln began reading him jokes from a book of
humor. Lincoln claimed that he needed relief from the
burden of knowing that lives were and would be lost
because of his decisions. Arnold realized that Lincoln’s
use of humor was often a mask used to hide
something that was simultaneously present in this
leader’s certainty—namely, doubt.
WEAK GENERAL INTRO
EXAMPLES
Weak: You’re in a certain situation where you need
confidence. That voice of doubt will not be quiet and
it negatively impacts your performance.
Stronger: I have played the flute since I was six. I
played Chopin’s Nocturne No 20 in C-sharp minor
without error for an audience of 500. But as I placed
my sheet music on the stand at the competition
recital, my hand was shaking and all I could hear was
this voice of doubt: “Cut your losses and go home.
You’re going to mess this up big time. You haven’t
even started playing yet and the notes already lack
wind support and sound flat.”
2. BACKGROUND/ENTER THE
CONVERSATION (NARRATIO)
You provide background material (context) that’s
important to the topic or argument.
• Here is where you offer some “They Say,” to enter
the conversation before declaring your stance.
• If the task asks you to respond to another writer’s
idea, then you must mention his/her name and
paraphrase his/her idea
• If the task does not ask you to directly respond to
another person’s thinking, then you can still use
the “They Say” that’s provided OR you can
provide some “They Say” of your own OR both
2. BACKGROUND/ENTER THE
CONVERSATION (NARRATIO)
The wild array of theories that go into the field of
theocratic philosophies are categorized into two
main sides: free will and determinism. The difference
of free will and determinism is similar to that of
certainty and doubt because the free will of human
beings to live without respite from a creator or to
make decisions on their own accord is of equal
contrast to those who in determinism believe that
their fate has been decided or that they must adhere
to the teachings of a God.
Excerpt from a high-scoring 2013 essay
2. BACKGROUND/ENTER THE
CONVERSATION (NARRATIO)
William Lyon Phelps and Bertrand Russell portray
conflicting views regarding the importance of
certainty and doubt. Phelps’s position is that having
certainty in ourselves allows us to accomplish
insurmountable tasks. On the other hand, Russell
believes that it is healthy to obtain a certain level of
doubt in ourselves and that we should not
dogmatically believe in any one philosophy.
Excerpt from a high-scoring 2013 student essay
3. THESIS
• Now it’s time for you to weigh in with your stance,
the argument you will defend.
So all together, the full introduction looks like this:
Hook (exordium)
Background/Context on “They Say” (narratio)
Thesis
THESIS TIPS
• Embrace the complexity of the issue and don’t
oversimplify it.
• One way to write a nuanced thesis is to structure it
as a complex sentence—a subordinate clause
(for main opposing argument) and an
independent clause (for your position)
•
When, Although, Except, By, Since, On the one hand, etc.
• Answer the Why does this matter? Question
• You might even want to include the word
“because” in your thesis statement to ensure
that you are including this part.
EXAMPLE CERTAINTY/DOUBT THESIS SENTENCES
WHICH ARE STRONG? WHICH NEED WORK?
1. Having doubt can cause productive, curious,
and cautious behaviors.
2. Doubt is imperative because it causes
breakthroughs in discovery that lead to new
certainties that would not otherwise be possible.
3. The relationship between certainty and doubt
divides people into two categories: believers and
realists.
4. While a certain degree of confidence is required
for success, an element of doubt in any situation
ensures both efficiency and motivation.
EXAMPLE CERTAINTY/DOUBT THESIS SENTENCES
WHICH ARE STRONG? WHICH NEED WORK?
5. By questioning things, one can find new answers,
increase personal freedom, and increase
knowledge.
6. It is through doubting, questioning, and
examining that society has grown.
7. On the one hand, while it’s important to be
certain of ourselves and confident in our
endeavors, we must not assume our beliefs are all
powerful and rule out the ideas of others.
8. Certainty often takes on a motivational purpose
while doubt commonly promotes safety.
LET’S WRITE AN INTRO FOR THE
HORACE ADVERSITY PROMPT
So all together, the full introduction looks like this:
Hook (exordium)
Background/Context on “They Say” (narratio)
Thesis
5 Minutes:
• Write a hook (exordium)
• Revise your HW thesis statement
4. DEVELOPMENT OF ARGUMENT/PROOF
(CONFIRMATIO)
You offer detailed support for the position in your
thesis (your stance, your main claim)
• organize paragraphs by ideas/arguments that
support your thesis and not by evidence type
• support should be in the form of factual
evidence, examples, illustrations, etc. (the
CHELPSS)
• The body of the argument essay is really a test of
LOGOS APPEAL. Use your CHELPSS examples as
part of your logical reasoning. High scoring essays
reflect an ability to utilize inductive and/or
deductive reasoning.
DEVELOPMENT OF ARGUMENT/PROOF
(CONFIRMATIO) EXAMPLE FROM 2013 STUDENT
ESSAY
This student’s argument aligned more with Phelps’s argument
regarding the necessity of certainty for achieving goals
Possessing confidence comes from having certainty. This
type of confidence can be seen in athletics. Sports
psychologist Jenna Warner wrote an article on the
power of believing in one’s self. She stated that the only
way to perform well was to have the certainty and
confidence in yourself and your abilities. Warner
provided research and statistics to back her theory.
Players who had unshakeable confidence in their
talents and abilities performed drastically better. In fact,
she found that this factor—the ability to shut out and
even ignore voices of doubt—separates Olympics
athletes from the rest.
DEVELOPMENT OF ARGUMENT/PROOF
(CONFIRMATIO) EXAMPLE –
WHAT TYPE OF REASONING?
It seems to me that, when the goal is something
larger, like attempting to effect sweeping social
change, there is really very little room for doubt. Let
us consider the example of MLK and other civil rights
activists of the ‘50s and ‘60s, who endured constant
physical and verbal abuse, threats of imprisonment
and death, yet most remained firm in their
convictions. If we can assume that it’s human nature
to avoid abuse, imprisonment, and death whenever
possible, then King, Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy,
and tens of thousands of others were either nutjobs
with death-wishes, or they were unequivocally
certain of their cause.
DEVELOPMENT OF ARGUMENT/PROOF
(CONFIRMATIO) EXAMPLE –
WHAT TYPE OF REASONING?
It seems to me that, when the goal is something
larger, like attempting to effect sweeping social
change, there is really very little room for doubt. Let
us consider the example of MLK and other civil rights
activists of the ‘50s and ‘60s, who endured constant
physical and verbal abuse, threats of imprisonment
and death, yet most remained firm in their
convictions. If we can assume that it’s human nature
to avoid abuse, imprisonment, and death whenever
possible, then King, Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy,
and tens of thousands of others were either nutjobs
with death-wishes, or they were unequivocally
certain of their cause.
YOUR TURN: DEVELOPMENT OF
ARGUMENT/PROOF (CONFIRMATIO) FOR THE
HORACE ADVERSITY PROMPT
•
3 Minutes: With your partner, choose a CHELPSS
example from the homework, and discuss how
it could be folded into a line of deductive
reasoning.
• On your own, write a 4-minute TDEC.
5. CONSIDERATION OF OPPOSING POSITIONS
(REFUTATIO)
• You reasonably consider possible “They Say”
objections to your thesis and try to
levelheadedly counter those objections,
showing why your thesis and supporting
arguments are still better than the others
• Support your argument by using logical reasoning
with factual evidence, examples (the CHELPSS)
• Here is where you want to make a concession to the
opposing position but then refute or qualify
• Be careful when addressing “They Say” objections
not to commit the straw person fallacy by
misrepresenting or dumbing down opposing
arguments
5. REFUTATIO FROM 2013 STUDENT ESSAY
This student’s argument aligned more with Russell’s position, so here the
student attempts to refute Phelps’s position.
While it is true that great thinkers often achieve greatness because of
their ability to, in the face of doubt, be certain about their ideas,
there are many beliefs that some people hold to be certain that are
not acceptable. Hitler, for example believed that people of Jewish
descent were inferior and his certainty led him and his followers to
murder six million people. Similarly, crusaders in the eleventh, twelfth,
and thirteenth centuries were certain that Rome had the right to
Jerusalem. They killed thousands and sparked a holy war that is still
not over. European colonists were certain that they had the right to
the entire North American continent, which led them to horribly
massacre and expel Native Americans from their homes on the Trail
of Tears. In 1860, the southern states believed, without a doubt, that
slavery was acceptable. While certainty may breed confidence and
achievement, not all achievements create progress and not all ideas
warrant confidence.
5. YOUR TURN: CONSIDERATION OF OPPOSING
POSITIONS (REFUTATIO)
FOR THE HORACE ADVERSITY PROMPT
•
•
•
•
With your partner, think of an opposing argument
that you would need to anticipate and refute.
Think about what slight concession you could make.
Think about how you could refute the opposing
argument. (What does the argument fail to consider
or how is it incomplete or invalid?)
Choose a CHELPSS example from the homework,
and discuss how it could be used to support your
refutation.
• On your own, write a 4-minute TDEC.
6. CONCLUSION (PERORATIO)
You draw together the entire argument and move
the audience to action.
• DON’T
• merely restate your thesis
• use the words “in conclusion”
• DO include one or more of the following:
• address the “so what” question—why your thesis matters
• reinforce your credibility
• make clear what you want the audience to think or to
do (although avoid sounding like you’re giving advice)
• Write a last sentence that brings closure. Endings are
where it is often effective to end with an emotional
appeal