Write the Thesis and the Line of Reasoning

Goal: write a thesis that earns the Thesis point, write a two-sentence introduction, and plan body paragraphs that build on each other.

Time: three sittings of about 30 minutes, one 15-minute return day, and one timed task when you have about 35 minutes.

Help: you can do this on your own or with family. You do not need a tutor. The Forms score your answers, the answer key explains every choice, and Part 6 shows you how to score your own thesis and plan.

How it works: start at the top and work down in order. When you reach a line that says Stop here, you are done for that day.

Get these ready:

• Your tracker. Use the same copy you used in Modules 1 and 2.
• The answer key for Module 3. Keep it closed until a step tells you to open it.
• Your Tool Card: Rhetorical Analysis (Student). Open the Thesis frame section.
• The Passage Packet from Module 2. It has the Kennedy and Reagan speeches and the strong sample essay. The Smith passage for this module is printed in Part 1.
• Paper and a pencil, or your own copy of this doc.
• A timer.

Why it is built this way: practice testing and spacing your study over time are two of the most useful study methods. Rereading is not. Writing a thesis and a plan, then checking them against a list, builds the skill. So this module has you write, test yourself, come back later, and check your own work.

If you get stuck

Do these in order:

1. Read the explanation in your Form results or the answer key.
2. Open the Tool Card and reread the Thesis frame and the Introduction in two sentences.
3. Add the question to the My Mistakes tab, keep going, and try it again at your next sitting.
4. Still stuck? Post your question in the Community Stream in the Student Hub. Start your post with Q: so tutors and other students can answer it. Nobody scores essays in this kit, so ask about one specific step.

Try first (about 5 minutes)

Open the Try First Check. Answer all 5 questions before you read anything below. Mark how sure you are on each one. It is fine to miss some, because trying first helps you remember the answers later.

When you submit, choose View score and read why each answer is right or wrong. Write your score on the My Scores tab of your tracker.

Got 5 out of 5? Skip Part 1 and go to Part 2.

Part 1: The thesis frame (about 12 minutes)

Your thesis answers the prompt with a position you can defend. In a rhetorical analysis essay, that means what the speaker is trying to do and the choices the speaker uses to do it. The Tool Card gives a frame:

Speaker + accurate verb + purpose + by + moves

A move says what the speaker does. Compare these two. Only a device name: "repetition." A move: "repeating 'I speak as' to stack her roles." The second one can be proved with words from the passage and explained in a body paragraph.

Worked example: Reagan

Here is the thesis from the Strong Sample Essay in the Passage Packet:

In his address, Reagan consoles a shocked nation and reassures it that the space program will go on by mourning the crew as a shared national loss, speaking directly to schoolchildren to recast the disaster as part of exploration, and placing the seven astronauts beside the great explorers of history.

The moves are in the order they appear in the speech. Your body paragraphs will follow the same order.

Passage for Parts 1 to 3: Margaret Chase Smith

Speaker: Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, a Republican and the only woman in the Senate at the time. Date and place: June 1, 1950, on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Background: Senator Joseph McCarthy, from Smith's own party, had been accusing people of being Communists, often without proof. In this speech Smith criticizes those attacks without naming him.

[1] Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration . . . .

[2] I speak as briefly as possible because too much harm has already been done with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism. I speak as simply as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence. I speak simply and briefly in the hope that my words will be taken to heart.

[3] Mr. President, I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an American.

[4] The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity.

[5] I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some real soul searching and to weigh our consciences as to the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America and the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges.

Source: Margaret Chase Smith, Declaration of Conscience, June 1, 1950, Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd session, as printed by the U.S. Senate. This excerpt leaves out parts of the speech. Paragraph numbers are for this excerpt only.

Your turn

Imagine this prompt: Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Smith makes to persuade her fellow senators to change how they behave. Write one thesis sentence with the frame. Then check it with these five questions:

1. Did you name the speaker?
2. Is the verb from the Tool Card list, not says, talks about, or uses?
3. Does the purpose say what Smith wants senators to do?
4. Did you write by, then two or three moves that say what Smith does?
5. Are the moves in the order they appear in the passage?

Fix anything that does not pass. Keep your sentence for Part 2. You will compare it with a model in the answer key after you finish Part 2.

Part 2: The two-sentence introduction (about 10 minutes)

You have about 40 minutes for each essay on the exam. A hook uses time and earns no points. Write an introduction in two sentences:

Worked example: Kennedy

Sentence 1: Speaking in a Houston football stadium in September 1962, with the Soviet Union ahead in space, President Kennedy addressed a hopeful crowd and a watching nation with confident urgency about the costly race to the moon.

Sentence 2: Kennedy rallies his audience behind the mission by compressing human history into a single half-century, framing the mission as a challenge chosen for its difficulty, and inviting his listeners to see themselves as explorers setting sail on a new sea.

Use this checklist on every introduction you write:

• Sentence 1 has the speaker, occasion, audience, subject, and tone.
• There is no hook and no line such as "In this essay I will."
• Sentence 2 follows the frame: speaker, accurate verb, purpose, by, moves.
• The whole introduction is two sentences.

Your turn

Use the Smith passage in Part 1. Write SOAPSTone notes from the Context line. Then write sentence 1. Use your thesis from Part 1 as sentence 2, and fix it if the checklist shows a problem. Now open the answer key and compare your introduction with the model for Part 1 and Part 2.

Replay Game 1 and try to beat your score.

Part 3: Line of reasoning (about 12 minutes)

A line of reasoning is the path your essay follows from one body paragraph to the next. Each paragraph builds on the one before it. A list is a set of paragraphs that could go in any order.

Here is a test. Move your body paragraphs into a different order. If the essay still makes sense, it is a list.

To plan a line, write one sentence for each body paragraph. Each sentence says what the paragraph does and how it builds on the one before it. These words help show the link:

• Having shown ..., the speaker turns to ...
• With that ... in place, ...
• Because ..., ...
• After ..., ...
• ..., so that ...

Worked example: Smith

Paragraph 2 needs paragraph 1, because she needs standing before she can criticize. Paragraph 3 needs paragraph 2, because the call to change only makes sense after the gap is shown. The order cannot change.

Your turn

Use Passage 1, Kennedy at Rice, in the Passage Packet. Pick three or four choices Kennedy makes. You can use the moves from his thesis in Part 2. Write one sentence for each body paragraph that says what it does and how it builds on the one before it. Then do the test: move two paragraphs. Does the plan break? If it does not, rewrite the link. Compare your plan with the model in the answer key.

Part 4: Practice set, check, and fix (about 15 minutes)

Open the Practice Set and answer the questions there. The Form asks how sure you are on each one, scores your answers, and explains every choice. The questions use the Smith passage in Part 1 and the Kennedy and Reagan passages in the Passage Packet.

If you prefer paper, answer below, mark each one 1 (guess), 2 (maybe), or 3 (sure), and check them in the answer key.

Question 1. Here is a thesis: Smith urges her colleagues to examine their own conduct by speaking as one of them, contrasting the Senate's reputation with its recent behavior, and calling for soul searching. Which part of the frame is the phrase "to examine their own conduct"?

A) Speaker

B) Accurate verb

C) Purpose

D) Moves

Question 2. A prompt asks how Reagan comforts the nation and reassures it that the space program will continue. Which thesis opening uses the most accurate verbs?

A) Reagan talks about the Challenger and the space program by

B) Reagan consoles a grieving nation and reassures it that the space program will go on by

C) Reagan uses emotional language in his speech by

D) Reagan says he is sad about the Challenger by

Question 3. Smith's thesis begins: Smith urges senators to examine their own conduct by ... Which ending names the strongest moves?

A) using repetition, word choice, and contrast.

B) saying she will speak briefly and simply, and then speaking briefly and simply.

C) quoting the Congressional Record.

D) naming the four roles she speaks from, contrasting the Senate's respected past with its recent behavior, and asking senators to do some soul searching.

Question 4. Notes: Reagan. The evening of January 28, 1986, in the Oval Office. The Challenger broke apart that morning. The audience is the nation and schoolchildren. The subject is the loss of the crew. The tone is grief. Which is the best first sentence of a two-sentence introduction?

A) On the evening of January 28, 1986, hours after the space shuttle Challenger broke apart, President Reagan spoke from the Oval Office to a grieving nation, including schoolchildren who had watched the launch, about the loss of the crew.

B) Have you ever lost something that mattered to you?

C) This essay will analyze the rhetorical choices Reagan makes in his speech.

D) Reagan consoles a grieving nation by naming the crew.

Question 5. Which description matches a complete two-sentence introduction?

A) Sentence 1 asks a question about space. Sentence 2 gives the date.

B) Sentence 1 states the thesis. Sentence 2 says the same thing in different words.

C) Sentence 1 gives the speaker, date, place, audience, and subject. Sentence 2 states the thesis with the frame.

D) Sentence 1 summarizes the whole speech. Sentence 2 lists devices.

Question 6. A prompt asks about Reagan's choices to comfort the nation and to assure Americans that the space program will continue. Which thesis would earn the Thesis point?

A) Reagan uses emotional language, repetition, and a poem in his Challenger speech.

B) Reagan wanted to comfort the nation, and his speech does that very well.

C) Reagan gave the speech on the night of January 28, 1986, after the Challenger disaster.

D) Reagan consoles a grieving nation and reassures it about the space program by mourning the crew as a shared loss, speaking directly to schoolchildren, and placing the crew beside the great explorers of history.

Question 7. In an essay on Reagan, paragraph 2 shows him making the loss belong to everyone. Which sentence best opens paragraph 3 so that it builds on paragraph 2?

A) Reagan also speaks to schoolchildren.

B) Having joined the nation in grief, Reagan turns to the listeners most likely to be frightened, the schoolchildren who watched the launch.

C) The next paragraph in the speech is about schoolchildren.

D) Schoolchildren are an audience for the speech.

Question 8. A student moves the three body paragraphs of an essay on Reagan into a different order, and the essay still makes sense. What does this most likely show?

A) The paragraphs make a list, not a line of reasoning.

B) The essay has a strong line of reasoning.

C) The essay will earn the Sophistication point.

D) The thesis is too long.

Read the explanation for every choice, including the ones you got right. You can find them in your Form results and in the answer key.

Write your score on the My Scores tab. For each question you missed or rated 1 or 2, add a row to the My Mistakes tab.

Replay Game 2 and try to beat your score.

Part 5: Read a strong essay for its line (about 12 minutes)

Open the Passage Packet and read the Strong Sample Essay twice. This is a model written for this kit. It is not a College Board sample.

Then answer these on paper:

1. Paragraph 1 is a two-sentence introduction. Mark sentence 1 and sentence 2. In sentence 2, label the speaker, the accurate verbs, the purpose, the word by, and the three moves.
2. For paragraphs 2, 3, and 4, write what each paragraph does. Then copy the words at the start of the paragraph that link it to the paragraph before.
3. Do the test: could paragraph 3 come before paragraph 2? Say why or why not.
4. Paragraph 5 does something the others do not. Name it.

Check your answers in the answer key, Part 5.

Exit Check (about 5 minutes)

Open the Exit Check. Answer all 5 questions without your notes. When you submit, choose View score and read why each answer is right or wrong. Write your score on the My Scores tab of your tracker. Add any question you missed to the My Mistakes tab.

4 or 5 right: you are ready for your return day. 3 or fewer right: replay Game 2 and reread Part 1 before your return day.

Set your return date. Pick a date one to two weeks from today. Write it on the Next Step tab of your tracker and on your calendar.

1. Replay the game that felt hardest.
2. Retake the Exit Check without your notes.
3. Write your score on the My Scores tab and compare it with your first try.

4 or 5 right: go to Module 4. 3 or fewer right: open the help for the questions you missed, then retake the Exit Check in a few days.

Do this when you have about 35 minutes. You will plan an essay on a real prompt without writing the body paragraphs. A low score here is useful, because it tells you what to work on.

Use College Board's files on College Board's site only. Do not paste official questions, passages, or scoring guides into AI tools, because College Board does not allow its content to be used with them.

1. Open College Board's past exam questions page. Under 2024, open Free-Response Questions, Set 1, and go to Question 2.
2. Put your phone away and set a timer for 5 minutes. Read the prompt and the passage. Write SOAPSTone notes.
3. Take 5 minutes to write your two-sentence introduction. Use the checklist from Part 2.
4. Take 10 minutes to plan three body paragraphs. Write one sentence for each that says what the paragraph does and how it builds on the one before it.
5. Stop when the timer ends, even if you are not done. Score your work on the table below before you open any official file.
6. Back on the same page, open the 2024 Scoring Guidelines for Set 1 and read the Thesis row for Question 2. Then open the Sample Responses for Question 2, Set 1. Read the introduction of one high-scoring and one low-scoring sample. Change your scores if you scored too high or too low.
7. Write your final scores on the My Essays tab of your tracker. Write one fix for next time.

This score is practice feedback on one plan. The Line of reasoning check is not an official AP score row. It is a way to check your plan. It does not predict your exam score.

Want more practice? When you have another 40 minutes, write the three body paragraphs from your plan. Then score the whole essay with the table in Module 2, Part 6, and write the scores on the My Essays tab.

Next step: open the Next Step tab of your tracker, then open the help for your top sticking point. Then go to Module 4.

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