FRQ 3: The Argument Essay Example (College Board AP® English Language & Composition): Study Guide

Argument essay prompt

Consider the following claim:  

• Other people’s opinions are most valuable when they challenge our thinking rather than when they make our decisions for us

In your response you should do the following:

• Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position

• Provide evidence to support your line of reasoning

• Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning

• Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument

For more on method, see Unit 9: FRQ 3: The Argument Essay.

Planning the response

Before writing

First, determine what the claim requires you to consider:

• Central idea: the value of other people’s opinions

• Possible tension: listening to others vs. surrendering independent judgment

Establish a defensible position 

Establish your reasons

1. Other perspectives can reveal blind spots in our own thinking

2. An opinion becomes useful only after we evaluate its evidence, credibility and relevance

3. Independent judgment does not mean ignoring expertise; some opinions deserve greater weight than others

For more on choosing evidence for fit, see Unit 1: Choosing Effective Evidence.

Example argument essay

People rarely make important decisions entirely alone. Parents give advice, teachers offer feedback, friends express opinions and the internet supplies more recommendations than anyone could possibly follow. Ignoring all those perspectives would be foolish, but accepting them automatically would be equally dangerous. Other people’s opinions are most valuable when they expose information or perspectives we might otherwise miss, but strong judgment requires evaluating those opinions rather than allowing them to replace our own reasoning. 

An outside perspective can be valuable because people often struggle to recognize weaknesses in their own thinking. During a class presentation, my group spent several days developing an argument and designing slides that seemed perfectly clear to us. When another group reviewed the presentation, however, they immediately noticed that one of our graphs lacked clear labels and that we were drawing a broader conclusion from it than the evidence actually supported. Nothing about the graph had changed; what changed was the perspective from which it was being viewed. Because we already knew what we intended the graph to communicate, we unconsciously supplied information that an unfamiliar audience did not have. The other group’s criticism was useful because it exposed a weakness that familiarity had made difficult for us to see. In situations like this, another person’s opinion expands judgment rather than replacing it. 

Listening, however, is different from accepting. Modern technology makes that distinction increasingly important. A student can now receive advice about studying, writing or solving a problem within seconds from social media, online forums or artificial-intelligence tools. Much of that advice may sound confident even when different sources provide contradictory recommendations. The existence of an opinion, therefore, tells us very little about whether that opinion deserves to guide a decision. A student who receives a suggested explanation for a difficult concept still has to compare it with what has been taught, examine the reasoning and determine whether the explanation actually makes sense. The same principle applies beyond school: access to more opinions increases the amount of information available, but it also increases the responsibility to judge that information carefully. Advice becomes useful evidence for a decision, not a substitute for deciding. 

Independent judgment also does not require treating every opinion as equally valuable. Expertise matters. Someone designing a building should give far more weight to an engineer’s warning about structural safety than to a casual observer who simply dislikes the design. The engineer’s opinion deserves greater consideration not because independent thinking should disappear, but because that judgment is supported by specialized knowledge relevant to the problem. Thinking for oneself does not mean refusing influence; it means deciding what kind of influence is justified. Rejecting informed advice merely to appear independent can be just as thoughtless as accepting every opinion without question. 

The strongest decisions, therefore, exist between two extremes. Refusing to listen traps people inside the limits of their own experience, while accepting every outside opinion allows other people to do their thinking for them. Other perspectives are most valuable when they challenge assumptions, provide missing knowledge and force us to reconsider what we believe. The purpose of listening is not to surrender judgment, but to improve it.

Why this response works

• It begins by identifying the prompt's central tension rather than reducing the issue to simple agreement or disagreement

• The thesis then establishes a position that can generate reasons

• The body paragraphs are organized around those reasons

• The evidence reservoir supplies different kinds of material: a personal experience, a contemporary technological situation and a broader example involving expertise

• The commentary repeatedly answers the question: what exactly does the evidence prove? 

• Finally, the essay develops complexity through a distinction rather than a forced counterargument: independent judgment does not mean treating all opinions equally

How this response would likely score

For more on the sophistication point, see Unit 9: Earning the Sophistication Point.