AP LANG Question Pls help

Question

Using your own knowledge of politics and events in recent years, develop the fourth paragraph of the essay (reproduced below), so that it provides more explicit evidence and commentary to support the claim. (20 points)

*Use the existing paragraph as a starting point. Your focus should be on providing evidence and commentary to develop what is already written.

Today we still see evidence of civil disobedience sparking progress and change. In recent elections, we've seen candidates on both the Democratic and Republican sides promote new ideas, many of them very anti-establishment. We've also seen citizens stage their own forms of disobedience to effect change and promote new ideas. These examples reveal that "rebellion" can, in fact, lead to profound change.

Answer 1

There are two main strategies to keep in mind when answering this kind of question:

1.    Choose concrete evidence relevant to the specific claim.

2.    Analyze the evidence and prove that it supports the claim.

The first step is to identify the claim. A good way to start is to look at the first and last sentences of the paragraph: these are used to introduce and summarize the purpose of the paragraph.

“Today we still see evidence of civil disobedience sparking progress and change” and “These examples reveal that ‘rebellion’ can, in fact, lead to profound change” both support the claim that protest, civil action, and “rebellious” or unusual ideas lead to change. Now that you’ve identified the claim, you need to find evidence that clearly supports it.

You can use anything you like, but the examples you choose must (1) be examples of civil disobedience/anti-establishment ideas and (2) arguably lead to change.

For example, I might choose the Minneapolis Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. Protests have caused the Minneapolis city council to announce their intention to defund the police force.

Notice that I introduce a link between the protests and a policy change. In order to write a great essay, I would have to explain how that change occurred. I might say that the size and length of the protests, which have been ongoing since Floyd’s murder, have created pressure on public officials to respond to excessive police force in a concrete way. In order to address the specific concern of police brutality, the city council made a plan to transfer funds from the police to other institutions.

The first part of my paragraph might look something like this:

Today we still see evidence of civil disobedience sparking progress and change. For example, the Minneapolis Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd have drawn attention to the serious threat of police brutality. The protests have been ongoing since Floyd’s death, showing policy makers that their constituents care deeply about finding a solution. The Minneapolis City Council responded to this strong demand for change by announcing their intent to defund the police department. In this case, public figures pushed for a policy change in response to civil action.

To write a full paragraph, you’ll want to find two examples and analyze them in the same way. Prove they are relevant to the claim, then prove they support it.

I hope this helps! Good luck with your assignment.