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AP English Language / Claims and Evidence

Lesson

Claims you can actually argue

If nobody reasonable could disagree, you do not have a claim yet.

Learning goals

  • Turn a topic into a defensible claim.
  • Distinguish a claim from a restatement of a source.

Explanation

“Social media exists” is not a claim worth arguing. “School-issued phones-off policies help students write longer drafts” is a claim: a reader can ask for proof, exceptions, and costs. Thesis sentences fail when they announce a topic instead of taking a position.

A claim should match the evidence you can actually handle. A huge historical verdict needs more than one anecdote. A local policy claim can live on a tighter set of sources. Narrowing is not weakness; it is scale.

Key terms

  • Claim. A contestable statement the writer wants the audience to accept.
  • Qualifier. A limit on a claim—often, many, in this case—that keeps it from promising more than the evidence can hold.

Common mistakes

  • Writing a thesis that only previews topics: “This essay will discuss X, Y, and Z.”
  • Copying a source’s sentence and calling it your claim.

Practice

Original Marlow Works items. Check the answer explanation after you try.

1 of 1Claims and evidence · easy · short answer

A student claims that later school start times improve teen alertness. Describe one type of evidence that would strengthen the claim and one type that would be too weak by itself.

Original Marlow Works item — not a College Board question.

Take your time—this is practice, not a test.

Answer explanation

Which is a defensible claim: “Water is wet,” or “The cafeteria should keep a nut-free table at lunch”?

Answer. The cafeteria sentence, because a reader can reasonably agree or disagree and ask for reasons.

An argument needs a live disagreement, not a definition everyone already shares.

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Related resources

External links with reuse status. Marlow Works is independent and does not copy restricted exam or textbook material.

  • Official / link only

    AP English Language and Composition course page

    Official skills framework for rhetoric, argument, and synthesis.

    College Board · All rights reserved · accessed 2026-10-01

    Open source

  • CC BY — attribution required

    English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate

    Open composition text for writing process, argument, and revision.

    Open Textbook Library listing · CC BY · accessed 2026-10-01

    Open source