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How to Write an AP History Essay
USINFO | 2014-01-03 14:45
Advanced Placement courses offer high school students the opportunity to complete advanced studies in a subject area and earn college credit. Credit is awarded based on the student's score on a culminating exam. The College Board offers several Advanced Placement exams in history, all of which require two essays. Writing AP History essays will assess the student's knowledge of history and ability to apply and analyze historical information in an organized and coherent essay. Students who plan to take an AP History exam should know the expectations of the essay portion of the test and, ideally, complete practice essays before the test date.
Organize Your Evidence
●Analyze the question and consider what you are being asked to do. For example, are you being asked to compare two ideas, explain a concept or analyze information?
●Consider what evidence you have that will support your response to the question. You may want to jot down notes about the evidence that you feel will work best for your response.
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●Organize the evidence that you have selected into subtopics. You may want to create a brief numbered outline to keep you on track as you work.
Write Your Essay
●Write your thesis statement. The thesis statement should be a concise but detailed description of the topic of your paper and should introduce the subtopics into which you have grouped your evidence.
●Write a brief introduction that presents the topic and concludes with your thesis statement.
●Construct a body paragraph for each of your subtopics. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that introduces the subtopic and the information presented in the paragraph.
●Present the evidence that you have for each subtopic and show how it supports the topic of the essay. Before writing each paragraph, consider the best organization for that paragraph. For example, if you are discussing a series of historical events, you may want to write chronologically. If you are comparing and contrasting, you may want to present your information on one item and then present your information for the second item.
●End each body paragraph with a concise sentence summarizing what you have demonstrated in the paragraph.
●Write a concluding paragraph once you have addressed all of your subtopics in the body of the essay. The conclusion should summarize how the subtopics work together to address the topic of the essay. Revisiting your thesis to be sure that you have covered all that you intended to cover is useful here.
Tips & Warnings
●The College Board recommends taking five minutes to plan for each essay. Students commonly make the mistake of not taking the time to organize their ideas and evidence before beginning to write.
●If you are given a choice of questions or subtopics, select the question that you find easiest and know the most about. You will not receive extra points for attempting more challenging questions.
●You are not being tested on your writing ability. While strong writing skills don't hurt, don't get bogged down in grammatical and mechanical details at the expense of presenting well-organized evidence.
●Avoid "info dumps" of historical facts. Substantive and carefully chosen evidence that is organized to prove your thesis is preferable to overuse of names, dates and other factual information that has no bearing on your thesis.
Organize Your Evidence
●Analyze the question and consider what you are being asked to do. For example, are you being asked to compare two ideas, explain a concept or analyze information?
●Consider what evidence you have that will support your response to the question. You may want to jot down notes about the evidence that you feel will work best for your response.
●Top speed VPN, Working for China. $7 for 2 User Accounts/Month.
●Organize the evidence that you have selected into subtopics. You may want to create a brief numbered outline to keep you on track as you work.
Write Your Essay
●Write your thesis statement. The thesis statement should be a concise but detailed description of the topic of your paper and should introduce the subtopics into which you have grouped your evidence.
●Write a brief introduction that presents the topic and concludes with your thesis statement.
●Construct a body paragraph for each of your subtopics. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that introduces the subtopic and the information presented in the paragraph.
●Present the evidence that you have for each subtopic and show how it supports the topic of the essay. Before writing each paragraph, consider the best organization for that paragraph. For example, if you are discussing a series of historical events, you may want to write chronologically. If you are comparing and contrasting, you may want to present your information on one item and then present your information for the second item.
●End each body paragraph with a concise sentence summarizing what you have demonstrated in the paragraph.
●Write a concluding paragraph once you have addressed all of your subtopics in the body of the essay. The conclusion should summarize how the subtopics work together to address the topic of the essay. Revisiting your thesis to be sure that you have covered all that you intended to cover is useful here.
Tips & Warnings
●The College Board recommends taking five minutes to plan for each essay. Students commonly make the mistake of not taking the time to organize their ideas and evidence before beginning to write.
●If you are given a choice of questions or subtopics, select the question that you find easiest and know the most about. You will not receive extra points for attempting more challenging questions.
●You are not being tested on your writing ability. While strong writing skills don't hurt, don't get bogged down in grammatical and mechanical details at the expense of presenting well-organized evidence.
●Avoid "info dumps" of historical facts. Substantive and carefully chosen evidence that is organized to prove your thesis is preferable to overuse of names, dates and other factual information that has no bearing on your thesis.
