ap english language and composition · essays earning a score of 2 demonstrate little success in...

2018

AP English Language and CompositionSample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary

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Free Response Question 1

R Scoring Guideline

R Student Samples

R Scoring Commentary

AP® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 2018 SCORING GUIDELINES

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Question 1

General Directions: This scoring guide is designed so that the same performance expectations are applied to all student responses. It will be useful for most of the essays, but if it seems inappropriate for a specific essay, assistance should be sought from the Table Leader. The Table Leader should always be shown booklets that seem to have no response or that contain responses that seem unrelated to the question. A score of 0 or — should not be assigned without this consultation. The essay’s score should reflect an evaluation of the essay as a whole. Students had only 15 minutes to read the sources and 40 minutes to write; the essay, therefore, is not a finished product and should not be judged according to standards appropriate for an out-of-class assignment. The essay should be evaluated as a draft, and students should be rewarded for what they do well. The evaluation should focus on the evidence and explanations that the student uses to support the response; students should not be penalized for taking a particular perspective. All essays, even those scored 8 or 9, may contain occasional lapses in analysis, prose style, or mechanics. Such features should enter into the holistic evaluation of an essay’s overall quality. In no case should a score higher than a 2 be given to an essay with errors in grammar and mechanics that persistently interfere with understanding of meaning. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

9 – Essays earning a score of 9 meet the criteria for the score of 8 and, in addition, are especially sophisticated in their argument, thorough in development, or impressive in their control of language.

8 – Effective Essays earning a score of 8 effectively defend, challenge, or qualify the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial. They develop their position by effectively synthesizing* at least three of the sources. The evidence and explanations appropriately and convincingly support the student’s position. The prose demonstrates a consistent ability to control a wide range of the elements of effective writing but is not necessarily flawless.

7 – Essays earning a score of 7 meet the criteria for the score of 6 but provide more complete explanation, more thorough development, or a more mature prose style.

6 – Adequate Essays earning a score of 6 adequately defend, challenge, or qualify the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial. They develop their position by adequately synthesizing at least three of the sources. The evidence and explanations appropriately and sufficiently support the student’s position. The language may contain lapses in diction or syntax, but generally the prose is clear. 5 – Essays earning a score of 5 defend, challenge, or qualify the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial. They develop their position by synthesizing at least three sources, but the evidence and explanations used to support that position may be uneven, inconsistent, or limited. The student’s argument is generally clear, and the sources generally develop the student’s position, but the links between the sources and the argument may be strained. The writing may contain lapses in diction or syntax, but it usually conveys the student’s ideas.

AP® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 2018 SCORING GUIDELINES


Question 1 (continued)

4 – Inadequate Essays earning a score of 4 inadequately defend, challenge, or qualify the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial. They develop their position by synthesizing at least two sources, but that position may be inappropriately, insufficiently, or unconvincingly supported by the evidence and explanations used. The sources may dominate the student’s attempts at development, the link between the argument and the sources may be weak, or the student may misunderstand, misrepresent, or oversimplify the sources. The prose generally conveys the student’s ideas but may be inconsistent in controlling the elements of effective writing.

3 – Essays earning a score of 3 meet the criteria for the score of 4 but demonstrate less success in defending, challenging, or qualifying the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial. They are less perceptive in their understanding of the sources, or the evidence and explanations used may be particularly limited or simplistic. The essays may show less maturity in control of writing.

2 – Little Success Essays earning a score of 2 demonstrate little success in defending, challenging, or qualifying the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial. They may merely allude to knowledge gained from reading the sources rather than citing the sources themselves. The student may misread the sources, fail to develop a position, or substitute a simpler task by merely summarizing or categorizing the sources or by merely responding to the prompt tangentially with unrelated or inaccurate explanation. The prose often demonstrates consistent weaknesses in writing, such as grammatical problems, a lack of development or organization, or a lack of control.

1 – Essays earning a score of 1 meet the criteria for the score of 2 but are undeveloped, especially simplistic in their explanation, weak in their control of writing, or do not allude to or cite even one source.

0 Indicates an off-topic response, one that merely repeats the prompt, an entirely crossed-out response, a

drawing, or a response in a language other than English. — Indicates an entirely blank response. ∗ For the purposes of scoring, synthesis means using sources to develop a position and citing them accurately.

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AP® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 2018 SCORING COMMENTARY


Question 1

Overview

This year’s synthesis question asked students to use material from the six provided sources and write a “well-developed essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial.” To achieve this task, students needed to read all the sources, drawing support from the information to write their essay.

To do well, students were expected to understand that they were, in essence, creating an argument using the supplied information, as well as knowledge that they already possessed. Students also needed to understand that, with sources arguing among one another, students did not have to accept each source as “correct,” but rather, they needed to evaluate the provided information based on their own knowledge and perceptions of the world.

Responses were expected to integrate the information from the sources with the students’ positions, not merely repeat the information. Therefore, students were expected to understand how to integrate the support for competing arguments into their own.

Sample: 1A Score: 8

This essay presents an effectively qualified claim that eminent domain “can be perfectly productive and beneficial when a utilitarian approach of supporting the most people is taken.” In the second paragraph, the student offers well-reasoned, effective discussions of source B (e.g., “Instances like these defy all intentions of American democracy by denying basic freedoms and the principles of utilitarianism and majority rule that make American politics function”) and source C (e.g., “Overt racism and discrimination causes [sic] deep harms to society as a whole and eliminates [sic] the utilitarian approach of benefitting the most possible people … destroy[ing] any resemblance of American democracy”) that both further the idea of the central claim. The third paragraph provides a convincing example from the student’s own experience that again illustrates the importance of the utilitarian approach. Additionally, the fourth paragraph presents a counterargument regarding the constitutionality of eminent domain and then offers an effective rebuttal. The student’s control of language, although not flawless, is consistently demonstrated throughout the essay.

Sample: 1B Score: 6

This essay adequately develops the claim that “eminent domain has caused more harm the [sic] good overall.” The student uses sufficient sources to support their claim. In the second paragraph, the response presents an adequate discussion of “just compensation” that appropriately uses source F to support the student’s claim (e.g., “If landowners aren’t properly compensated, then the fundamental execution of eminent domain fails”). Moreover, the third paragraph provides an adequate explanation of “false promises” and uses sources B and D to sufficiently support the argument (e.g., “Such examples illustrate that without absolute certainty, the promises made to justify eminent domain frequently fall short, and individuals suffer the consequences of actions that they couldn’t control”). There are lapses in diction and syntax, but the prose is generally clear.

AP® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 2018 SCORING COMMENTARY


Question 1 (continued)

Sample: 1C Score: 4

This essay develops a claim that makes a comparison to Native American land seizure in an inadequately developed manner. The second paragraph is dominated by source material and provides insufficient explanation: e.g., “Regardless of the circumstances taking land from people with promises of just compensation (Soure [sic] A) is not fair or right.” The third paragraph provides an unconvincing explanation of a claim in source C (e.g., “The government claims to stand on the side of the people and speaks as if they are the defenders, but it is clear that the side being fought for is that of the rich”). Furthermore, the link between source B and the argument in the fourth paragraph is weak. The response’s overall inadequacy is demonstrated in the insufficient and oversimplified treatment of several sources in the last paragraph: e.g., “With the United States government working with corporations (Source B), they have ‘displaced several million people’ (Source C) and have attempted to rob others (Sourc [sic] F).”

ap english language and composition · essays earning a score of 2 demonstrate little success in...

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