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guys welcome back to coach hall writes
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today's video is actually a request from
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my own students
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they wanted to know how to earn the
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sophistication point for
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an ap lying synthesis essay before we
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get started i want to give a quick
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disclaimer and that
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is that the sophistication point is
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actually very difficult to earn
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so even though i'm going to give you
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guys some tips that hopefully you can
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apply to your future essays
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i do not guarantee that anyone will earn
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the sophistication point
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just by watching this video for the
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synthesis essay it's important
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to remember that you are trying to
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develop an argument
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you're using the provided sources to
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support your position
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and so think of it like this when you
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read a passage for rhetorical analysis
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you are analyzing the choices that that
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writer has made
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in order to develop his or her argument
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but when you write an
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essay you are the writer you're the
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author
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and you have to make choices to develop
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your argument
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so one of the choices that you can make
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that might offer a nuanced argument
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is that you could choose to offer a
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counter claim in rebuttal
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or a concession and refutation they're
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very similar
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but one thing to keep in mind is that we
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don't want to just drop this in
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and have it be one or two sentences and
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then move on if you truly want to add a
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layer of sophistication to your writing
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you really need to dig deep with either
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the counter claim and rebuttal or the
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concession
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refutation doing so is one way to add a
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layer of sophistication to your essay
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with a synthesis
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essay you need to develop a position so
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what that means is that you need to pick
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a side
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you need to assert a position and then
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develop your reasoning as to why that
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position is correct
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so the opposite of that is going to be
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the counter argument
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so once you've decided what your
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position is that you're going to argue
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you could think about what other people
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would say against that
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that's the counter argument now there
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are two different terms here we've got
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counter claim and rebuttal and
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concession and refutation
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they are pairs so you want to make sure
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that you actually write them as pairs
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because if you just
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acknowledge the counter argument but you
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don't actually refute it
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then it seems like you're arguing in
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favor of both sides which is actually
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called equivocation and we don't want to
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do that so remember that these come as
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pairs
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now i like to see students try to offer
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a concession
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just because i think sometimes that is a
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little bit softer so a concession is
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when you acknowledge the merit of the
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other side
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but you still assert that your position
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is correct you might be wondering
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how does acknowledging the counter
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argument and then refuting it
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add a layer of nuance to your argument
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and the reason is that if you are able
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to
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think about other perspectives and then
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say why they're wrong and why your
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position is correct
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it shows that you've thought about the
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issue beyond just what you want to argue
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so it seems like you've done your
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research it seems like you've thought
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about the issue
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and so it also helps to build your own
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credibility as a writer in working with
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my own students i've found that
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depending on the prompt or sometimes
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depending on the student
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students can readily identify the
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counter argument but then there are
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other times where students feel like
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they get stuck
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so if you feel like you're stuck i would
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recommend turning to the sources
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themselves
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because the sources are going to offer
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different perspectives and often times
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there are going to be a couple sources
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that
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agree with each other or build off of
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each other but then there might be other
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sources that contradict that particular
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position
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so if you're trying to figure out how to
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actually come up with a counter argument
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you might be able to use the sources as
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inspiration now that you're comfortable
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with the terminology
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you're probably wondering how exactly do
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i write a concession and refutation
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well i have a separate video that goes
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into this topic
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in a lot more detail and it includes
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some examples so i will link that here
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and the i cards above
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but i want to give you guys a quick
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crash course so basically
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you need to think about what the
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opposite side actually is
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you also want to think about the merit
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of this argument especially if you're
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doing a concession
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because that shows that you've thought
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about the value of the other side
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but you're ultimately going to refute it
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to prove that your position
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is the one that needs to be considered
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and then the final step is to
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acknowledge what the other side
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fails to consider so basically using a
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concession and refutation or a counter
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claim and rebuttal is a way to develop
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your argument
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because you're acknowledging the
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counter-argument but you're also
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explaining why
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the counter-argument is misguided or why
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it has shortcomings
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so this is a way to further your own
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position and make your argument more
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convincing remember that because you are
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the writer you get to make choices
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so not only do you get to choose whether
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or not you want to include a concession
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and refutation
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you also get to choose where you're
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going to include it in your argument
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so you want to think about a couple
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things where is it going to be most
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convincing
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some students like to include it in the
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beginning other students like to include
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it in the end
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it's just important to keep track of the
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pacing and the time that you have
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remaining
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especially if you're practicing for the
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exam you don't want to get
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most of the way through addressing the
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counter argument and then run out of
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time and not be able to actually refute
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it
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so do keep an eye on the time but ask
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yourself where does
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this best belong so where does it belong
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logically in terms of what i'm
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attempting to argue
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it's important to recognize that a
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synthesis essay is a conversation of
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sources
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which means that your job is not to
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summarize the sources
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but rather your job is to use the
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sources to support your
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argument for a synthesis essay it's
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important that you cite
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three different sources so you're going
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to be provided with anywhere from six to
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eight sources
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you need to cite three different sources
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at some point in your essay
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and it's okay to cite more than three
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sources but you need a minimum of three
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so often times what students ask is so
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does that mean i need three body
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paragraphs
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they assume that because they need three
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sources that they're supposed to be one
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source per paragraph
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and while that's not necessarily the
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wrong way to approach it
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it is a limiting belief and so what we
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want to think about
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is that since we need layers of evidence
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and commentary in our body paragraphs
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we can actually put two different
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sources in the same body paragraph
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to start this conversation so it might
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be that the two sources have similar
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perspectives
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it might be that somehow the topics are
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related and we can use evidence from one
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offer some commentary and then cite the
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other source and offer more commentary
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or the sources might contradict each
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other so you could actually use one of
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the sources to set
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up your concession and refutation you
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could use one source as a way to
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acknowledge the counter-argument
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and then refute it another way to earn
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the sophistication point
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is to situate the argument in a broader
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context
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now unfortunately sometimes this is a
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lot harder for certain prompts than
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others and there isn't exactly this
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magical formula that you can follow in
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order to do this
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that being said there are some things
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that you're going to want to consider
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so depending on the topic that you're
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writing about you might have some kind
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of connection to that
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topic maybe you have outside knowledge
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from
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history class or science class maybe
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it's an issue that you have encountered
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personally
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or maybe you are aware of how this issue
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fits into current events
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maybe you can infer from the documents
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what this means for society perhaps in
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the future
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so there are different ways to go beyond
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the argument and to think about the big
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picture
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but that's really what they mean when
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they say situate the argument in a
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broader context so
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it is something that i think students
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can attempt to do
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in their commentary but i think there's
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times when
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students are going to be more successful
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at it than others so i would encourage
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you to ask yourself
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what outside knowledge do i have about
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this topic
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do i have any relevant personal
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experience with this topic
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and also just what are the implications
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for society because
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even if you don't earn the
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sophistication point because of thinking
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about these things
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it could still help your commentary as
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you attempt to situate the argument in a
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broader context you want to be very
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careful that you're being specific
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because generalizations are going to
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weaken your argument
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and generalizations are not going to
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help you earn the sophistication point
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the rubric also says that students can
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earn the sophistication point because of
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a vivid
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and persuasive writing style so it's
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important to remember that
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you need one of these elements to earn
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sophistication
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but it needs to be consistent so just
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including sophisticated words
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is not going to earn you the
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sophistication point so think back to
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some of the arguments that you've read
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in class
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perhaps as you were doing a rhetorical
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analysis which choices did those writers
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make
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to make their argument more compelling
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was it their word
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choice was it metaphors was it the fact
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that they had
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a clever play on words these are things
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that you might be able to incorporate
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into your own writing
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in order to make it more dynamic now
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keep in mind
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that some students are going to have a
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knack for this whereas others might not
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and i have read some wonderful essays
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that were sophisticated or close to
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sophisticated in terms of that
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sophistication point
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but they didn't necessarily have this it
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factor style that we're talking about so
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i don't want you to think that you have
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to incorporate
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all of these things but you want to be
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very targeted so if you're the type of
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person
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that has a very strong writing voice and
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you think that's going to make you stand
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out
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then perhaps this is the element that
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you can focus on there are also some
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writing tips that i believe
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all students should focus on regardless
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of whether or not the sophistication
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point is truly attainable
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and the first is to work on combining
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your sentences
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you want to avoid redundancy this will
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help the flow of your essay
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something else that's going to help the
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flow of your essay is to vary your
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syntax
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so syntax is sentence structure
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oftentimes when students are writing
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under pressure
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they forget to vary their sentence
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length and so they have a lot of simple
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declarative sentences back to back
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and when we read these types of essays
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they sound very choppy
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they sound like a list and so we want to
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improve the flow by adding in some
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dependent clauses or introductory
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phrases
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that way it helps the flow of the actual
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paragraph itself
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something else to consider is your word
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choice like i said previously
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you don't want to just try to use
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sophisticated sounding words
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for the sake of being sophisticated
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oftentimes students actually use these
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words incorrectly
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now conversely you don't want to use
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lower level words
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when you can come up with a synonym so
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you don't want to say words like
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good bad thing or a lot because those
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are lower level words
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another quick fix that's going to
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improve the quality of your writing
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is avoiding weak lead-ins so a lot of
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times when students are first starting
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out
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they want to lead into their evidence by
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saying phrases like
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according to source a and while this
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isn't wrong it does count as a citation
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it actually reads better if you can
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integrate that quote into a sentence of
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your own
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and put the parenthetical citation at
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the end teachers if you've been watching
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my videos for a while you know that i
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love sentence frames as a means to help
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students improve their writing
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and i use them quite a lot for
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rhetorical analysis but i recently put
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some together for synthesis
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and i will link them in the description
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box below in case you want to get your
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hands on them as well
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thank you so much for watching and as
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always happy writing
