By: Taylor King and Max Inman

 In an argumentative essay you will be asked to

state a claim and back up your points on your view
of a specific topic
 You can argue any position that will effectively
back up your claim
 You can either refute, support, or qualify
 Supporting the claim is considered the easiest to AP
readers
 Refuting the claim is considered to be slightly harder
to AP readers than supporting
 Qualifying the argument is considered the most
challenging task of the three, and therefore will earn
more merit by AP readers
 Evidence such as literary, historical,
or personal (not preferred) can be
used to develop your argument
effectively
 Choose your evidence based on the
ideas that come to you and will be the
easiest to relate to your topic
 Facts-Verifiable Statements
 Statistics-Facts expressed in numbers
 Examples-Specific cases covered by an assertion
 Expert opinions-The judgments of authorities
 Appeals to readers’ beliefs or needs
 Persuading the audience through ethos, pathos, or
logos.
 Ethos is appeals to credibility as an author
 Pathos is appeals to emotions of any kind
 Logos is appeals to a logical approach to the argument
 Evidence must be accurate
 It must be drawn from reliable resources or
quoted exactly
 Evidence must be relevant to topic
 Must relate and support the topic being
discussed
 Organization is key when persuading an
argument in an essay
 Your sequence of assertions must be logically
clear and effective
 When writing an argumentative essay, you
must have clear ideas that relate and
evaluate your claim towards the topic
 Don’t forget that you can agree, disagree,
or qualify your argument
 Make sure you clearly choose your side
 Your argument can be proven best by
specific and factual evidence or
experience
 Things such as:
 Underlining the title of the book
 Checking your grammar (especially verb-tense shifts)
 Use the present tense when addressing the author,
texts, and claim
 Only use past tense when presenting historical facts