CA - Writing AP Long Essays Lesson

Writing AP Long Essays

A key to success in AP U.S. History (both in the class and on the exam) is being able to write good essays. The AP Exam will feature one long essay question (LEQ) that must be written in less than 40 minutes. On the AP Exam you will have a choice between three essays. In the course you will periodically have essay assignments and every other module test (beginning with this Colonial America module) will ask you to write one long essay within a 35 minute time limit. All three LEQ's will assess the same theme and the same 1 of 4 categories: Continuity and Change Over Time, Comparison, Causation, or Contextualization. They will differ on which time period you will be asked to address:

• Option 1 - periods 1-3
• Option 2 - periods 4-6
• Option 3 - periods 7-9

Writing the essays can be intimidating at first, but be eager and open to learning and in time you will get it! Even some students who are good writers often struggle with AP essays at first because they need to be in a specific format. So be patient and follow the directions given and you will soon be writing quality AP essays.

Essays are scored on a 0-6 scale with 6 being the highest. For the course the grade breakdown for each number is as follows:

Use this rubric to see the types of things that are evaluated. Links to an external site.

View the presentation below.

View and listen to the presentation about thesis statements to review and expand upon what you have just learned and then check out the two examples provided.

Here are two examples of thesis statements:

Fast and Furious Essay Tips:

View and listen to the following presentation that gives some good tips about writing essays. Please note that the presentation is referring to the contextualization point as synthesis.

 

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