Score Your Own Essay and Write on the Clock

Goal: score your own essay on the three rows, check your scores against College Board's scored samples, find your lowest row, and write a whole essay in 45 minutes.

Time: three sittings of about 30 minutes, one 15-minute return day, and one timed essay when you have about 1 hour and 15 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 this module shows you how to score your own essay.

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 to 4.
• The answer key for Module 5. Keep it closed until a step tells you to open it.
• Your Tool Card: Rhetorical Analysis (Student). You will use the thesis frame, CHAIN, and the scoring rows.
• The Passage Packet from Module 2. It has the Kennedy and Reagan speeches. The Smith passage is printed in Part 2.
• Paper and a pencil, or your own copy of this doc.
• A timer.
• For Part 6: a blank doc to type your essay in.

Why it is built this way: a review of writing studies, mostly in younger grades, found that students who scored their own writing improved. Scoring only helps if you are honest and you check your score against an outside sample. Writing on the clock is a skill you build by doing it. So this module has you score three practice essays, score a College Board sample, and then write and score a whole essay of your own in 45 minutes.

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 scoring rows.
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.

Doing this with your family

A family member does not need to know the answers. They can run the timer in Part 6, read the row descriptions out loud, and ask, "Which words in the essay prove that score?" They should not score the essay for you or rewrite it. The score is useful only when you do the scoring.

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 three rows and how to score each one (about 10 minutes)

Every AP Lang essay is scored from 0 to 6 on three rows. The words in the table are our own, written for practice. You can also read the official scoring rubrics from College Board. In Module 1 you used this same table to score your first essay.

This score is practice feedback on one essay. It is not an official AP score, and it does not predict your exam score.

How to score one row at a time

Do the rows in this order. Write one short reason for each row.

1. Thesis. Find your thesis. It is the last sentence of your introduction. Ask two questions: does it say what the speaker is trying to do, and does it name the choices the speaker uses to do it? If both answers are yes, write 1. If one is no, write 0.
2. Evidence and Commentary. Circle every quote in your essay. Then check each claim, which is each topic sentence. Does it have a specific quote? Next, underline the sentence after each quote that says what the choice does. Mark the ones that also say how it affects the listeners or why it helps the speaker's purpose. Last, ask whether each paragraph builds on the one before it. Then read the five descriptions in the table and choose the one that fits best.
3. Sophistication. Look for one tension the speaker has to manage, or a reason this exact moment matters. Then check whether it appears in your introduction, in at least two body paragraphs, and near the end. If it appears in only one sentence, write 0.

Four habits that make your scoring honest

1. Score every row before you open any scored sample.
2. Write one reason for each row, in a short sentence, with words from your essay.
3. Score the essay you wrote, not the essay you meant to write. Do not give credit for an idea that is not on the page.
4. If you are between two scores, choose the lower one. Then check it against a scored sample.

Add the rows and find your lowest row

Add the three scores. The total is out of 6. Then find your lowest row. Your lowest row is the row where you earned the smallest share of its points. A 0 out of 1 is the smallest share. A 2 out of 4 is half. If two rows tie, choose Evidence and Commentary first, then Thesis, then Sophistication. Your tracker does this for you when you write your scores on the My Essays tab. Here are four examples.

The lowest row tells you where one fix will help most. Write one fix for it, and only one.

Part 2: Score three practice essays (about 12 minutes)

Here are three short essays on the Smith passage. We wrote them for practice. They are not College Board samples. Each one is shorter than an exam essay, so score the paragraphs as if they were the whole essay.

The prompt: Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Smith makes to persuade her fellow senators to change how they behave.

Passage: 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.

Essay A

[1] Margaret Chase Smith gave a speech to the Senate in 1950. She talked about problems in the Senate, and she wanted the senators to change.

[2] In the speech Smith says that she speaks as a Republican, as a woman, as a senator, and as an American. She also says the Senate has become a forum of hate. This shows that Smith does not like what is going on in the Senate. At the end she says it is time for the senators to do some soul searching. This shows that she wants them to think about what they do.

[3] Smith's speech was about an important problem, and she made her point.

Essay B

[1] Senator Margaret Chase Smith urges her fellow senators to change their conduct by speaking as one of them and by contrasting the Senate's reputation with its behavior.

[2] In her speech, she says, "I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an American." By repeating "I speak as," Smith shows that she has several roles, and this makes her speech stronger. She is a senator too, so the other senators have to listen.

[3] Smith also describes the Senate in two ways. She says it has "worldwide respect" but that it has become "a forum of hate and character assassination." This contrast shows that the Senate used to be good and is now bad. Smith wants the senators to see the difference. In the end she asks for "soul searching," which makes the senators think about their actions.

Essay C

[1] In 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith faced colleagues who had let a fellow senator's accusations go unanswered, and she had to criticize them without joining the attacks she condemned. She urges the Senate to change its conduct by claiming her standing as one of its members, setting its reputation against its behavior, and asking for self-examination in plain, restrained words.

[2] Smith first earns the right to criticize by naming four roles. She repeats "I speak as" before "a Republican," "a woman," "a United States senator," and "an American," so no senator can dismiss her as only a partisan or an outsider. Because she names no one, this standing lets her object to the Senate's conduct while staying inside the courtesy she asks others to keep.

[3] With that standing, she measures the Senate against its own pride. By setting its "worldwide respect" beside "a forum of hate and character assassination," Smith makes senators hear their conduct named as the opposite of their reputation. The label is harsh, yet she aims it at the institution and not at any one person, so she can press the point without becoming the kind of speaker she describes.

[4] Finally, she asks them to act. Her call for "real soul searching" turns the criticism into a request that each senator examine himself, and her own plain manner of speaking "briefly and simply" shows the restraint she wants to see. The gap between the hate she describes and the calm way she describes it is the speech's argument: the Senate can change, and she shows how.

Your turn

Score each essay, one row at a time, with the table in Part 1. Write a reason for each row. Fill in this table on paper.

Then open the answer key, Part 2. Compare your scores and reasons. If you differ by one point on a row, read the reason in the key and find the words in the essay that prove it.

Replay Game 1 and try to beat your score.

Part 3: Practice set, check, and fix (about 12 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. Some questions print a thesis or a paragraph for you to score. Use the table in Part 1.

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. A student writes this thesis for a prompt about Reagan's Challenger address: Reagan uses repetition, metaphor, and a poem to make his speech effective. What does it earn on the Thesis row?

A) 0, because it lists devices with no purpose

B) 1, because it names three choices

C) 1, because it names the speaker

D) 0, because it is too short

Question 2. A thesis says: Kennedy rallies the crowd behind a costly goal. Why does it not yet earn the Thesis point?

A) It uses the word rallies, which is too strong

B) It states a purpose but names none of the choices he uses to reach it

C) It does not mention Houston or the year

D) It needs a quote from the speech

Question 3. Score this paragraph on the Evidence and Commentary row. Reagan talks about the crew. He says "We mourn seven heroes" and lists their names. He also says "We will never forget them." This shows that Reagan respects the crew. Reagan says the crew "slipped the surly bonds of earth," which shows they were brave.

A) 1, because the evidence is general

B) 3, because every claim has a specific quote

C) 4, because every quote is exact

D) 2, because the quotes are specific but the explanation is thin

Question 4. Score this paragraph on the Evidence and Commentary row. Smith opens by building her standing. She repeats "I speak as" before "a Republican," "a woman," "a United States senator," and "an American," which stacks four roles so that no senator can dismiss her as an outsider. She then turns to the Senate's reputation. She says it has "worldwide respect" but has been brought down to "a forum of hate," which shows senators how far they have fallen. Finally, she asks for "soul searching," which tells them to think about what they do.

A) 2, because the explanation is thin everywhere

B) 4, because every claim has a quote

C) 3, because every claim has specific quotes and some of the choices are explained

D) 1, because it uses the word finally

Question 5. A student's essay explains, in the introduction and in every body paragraph, that Reagan must honor the dead without letting the nation lose faith in the space program. The last sentence comes back to the same tension. What does it earn on the Sophistication row?

A) 0, because Sophistication is only for long essays

B) 1, because the tension runs through the whole essay

C) 0, because the last sentence is the only place it appears

D) 1, because the student used long words

Question 6. A student scored an essay: Thesis 1, Evidence and Commentary 3, Sophistication 0. What is the total, and which row is the lowest row?

A) 4 out of 6, and the lowest row is Evidence and Commentary, because it is worth the most points

B) 3 out of 6, and the lowest row is Sophistication

C) 4 out of 6, and the lowest row is Sophistication, because 0 of 1 is the smallest share of its points

D) 4 out of 8, and the lowest row is Thesis

Question 7. You scored your essay 4 out of 6. The College Board sample closest to your essay earned a higher score on Evidence and Commentary than you gave yourself. What should you do?

A) Raise your score to match the sample, because the College Board is always right

B) Ignore the sample, because your essay is different

C) Compare only the totals and stop

D) Read that sample's body paragraphs and scoring notes, find what it did that your essay did not, and change your score only if the sample shows you scored too high or too low

Question 8. Your plan gives each body paragraph 10 minutes. At the 10-minute mark, body paragraph 1 has a claim, two short quotes, and commentary, but no last sentence about the speaker's purpose. What should you do?

A) Keep revising paragraph 1 until it is perfect

B) Write one short sentence that names the purpose, then start paragraph 2 on time

C) Skip the purpose sentence and never come back to it

D) Delete paragraph 1 and start over

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.

Part 4: Plan the clock (about 12 minutes)

The real exam gives you 2 hours and 15 minutes for three essays, including a 15-minute reading period. Plan on about 40 minutes for each essay. In this kit you practice with 5 minutes to plan and 40 minutes to write. A hook, a definition, and a summary earn no points on any of the three rows. So the plan below skips all three. It uses a two-sentence introduction.

If you fall behind

• Shorten the paragraph. Do not skip the explaining.
• Always end a body paragraph with one sentence that names the speaker's purpose, even if it is short.
• If you run out of time before paragraph 3, write the claim, one short quote, and one sentence of explaining. A short paragraph earns more than none.
• When the timer ends, stop. Note on paper where you ran out of time. That tells you which step to practice.

The 5-minute plan, worked on Smith

Here is what a plan can look like when the timer is running. Your plan will be shorter and messier, and that is fine. Check that it has the situation, three choices in order, a line of reasoning, and a thesis.

Your turn

Set a timer for 5 minutes. Open the Passage Packet and plan an essay on Kennedy's speech at Rice. The prompt: Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Kennedy makes to persuade his audience to support the space program. Write your notes on paper. Stop when the timer ends. Then open the answer key, Part 4, and compare your plan with the model.

Replay Game 2 and try to beat your score.

Part 5: Score a College Board sample (about 20 minutes)

Now you check your scoring against College Board's. You will score one real sample on your own, and then see how College Board scored it. Use College Board's files on College Board's site only. Do not paste official questions, passages, samples, 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 2023, open Free-Response Questions, Set 2, and read Question 2, the prompt and the passage. You do not need to write an essay.
2. Back on the same page, open the 2023 Sample Responses for Question 2, Set 2. Choose one sample. Use a sheet of paper to cover the score and the scoring notes, so you see only the essay.
3. Score the sample on all three rows, with the table in Part 1. Write one reason for each row, using words from the essay.
4. Take the paper away. Read the official score and the scoring notes for that sample.
5. Fill in the table below. Find the row where you differed most.
6. Open the 2023 Scoring Guidelines for Set 2. Read the description for that row on Question 2. Write one thing the sample did, or did not do, that you missed.
7. Add a row to the My Mistakes tab. Write Module 5 in the Module column, the sample and the row in the Question column, and Scoring your own essay in the Sticking point column. Add why you missed it and what you will do next time.

If you differ by one point, that is normal. If you differ by two points or more on Evidence and Commentary, reread the five descriptions in Part 1 and look at how the sample explains its quotes. If you want more practice, repeat the steps with a higher or lower sample from the same file.

Our table is written for practice, and College Board's rubric has more detail. Your goal is not to match the score exactly. Your goal is to see which of your habits pushes your scores too high or too low.

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 1 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 Part 6, and then to Module 6. 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 1 hour and 15 minutes. You will write one full rhetorical analysis essay in 45 minutes, score it, compare it with our model and a middle sample, and log it on your tracker. A low score here is useful, because it tells you what to work on. The passage is a speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is in the public domain, and it is printed below. Do not open the answer key until step 6.

Prompt

Speaker: President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Date and place: December 8, 1941, Washington, D.C., before a joint session of Congress, and broadcast on radio. Background: on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and other places in the Pacific. Before the attack, Americans had argued for years about whether the United States should join the war.

On December 8, 1941, the day after Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to a joint session of Congress and, by radio, to the nation. The passage is the complete text of that speech. Read the passage carefully. Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Roosevelt makes to persuade Congress to declare war and to prepare Americans for the war ahead.

In your response, you should:

• State a thesis that analyzes Roosevelt's rhetorical choices.
• Use evidence from the passage to support your line of reasoning.
• Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning.
• Show that you understand the rhetorical situation.
• Use clear grammar and punctuation.

Original practice prompt written for Future-Focused Writing in the AP rhetorical analysis format.

Passage: Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 8, 1941

Mr. Vice President, and Mr. Speaker, and Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:

[1] Yesterday, December 7, 1941--a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

[2] The United States was at peace with that Nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

[3] It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

[4] The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

[5] Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.

[6] Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

[7] Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

[8] Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

[9] Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

[10] Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our Nation.

[11] As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

[12] But always will our whole Nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

[13] No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

[14] Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

[15] With confidence in our armed forces -- with the unbounding determination of our people -- we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

[16] I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War with Japan, December 8, 1941. The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara. Public domain (U.S. government work). Complete text. Paragraph numbers are for this packet. The original uses a long dash in paragraph 1, shown here as two hyphens.

Steps

1. Open a blank doc. Put your phone away. Ask a family member to run the timer, or set it yourself. Keep the Tool Card and the clock table from Part 4 where you can see them.
2. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Read the prompt and the passage. On paper, write your SOAPSTone notes, three choices in the order they appear, a line of reasoning, and your thesis. Do not start your essay yet.
3. Set a timer for 40 minutes. Type your essay. Write a two-sentence introduction and skip the hook. Use CHAIN in each body paragraph. Use the minutes from the Part 4 table. Stop when the timer ends, even if you are not done.
4. Take a 5-minute break. Then read your essay once, from the top, as if someone else wrote it.
5. Score your essay on each row, with the table in Part 1, before you open any other file. Write one reason for each row. Add the rows for your total. Find your lowest row.
6. Open the answer key, Part 6. Read our model essay and our middle sample. Read the score and the reason for each row. Find the sample closest to your essay. Change your scores if the samples show you scored too high or too low.
7. Write your final scores on the My Essays tab. Fill in these columns: Date, Module (5), Essay type (Rhetorical analysis), Prompt or passage (FDR, December 8, 1941), Minutes (45), Thesis, Evidence and Commentary, Sophistication, and Compared with a scored sample (yes). The tracker fills in the total and the lowest row.
8. In the One fix for next time column, write one fix for your lowest row. If you ran out of time, your fix can be about timing, such as the minute by which you want to finish each paragraph.

This score is practice feedback on one essay. It is not an official AP score, and it does not predict your exam score. Our model and our middle sample are not College Board samples. To compare with College Board's own samples, repeat Part 5 any time.

Want more practice? Write another essay on the clock in a week. Choose a College Board Question 2 that you have not written on before, and score it the same way.

Next step: open the Next Step tab of your tracker, then open the help for your top sticking point. Then go to Module 6.

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