AP® English Language and Composition · The Exam: Section II, Free-Response and the Rubric
Question 1: The Synthesis Prompt and Its Six Sources
The synthesis prompt gives six sources but only requires citing three because the essay needs room for commentary, not a tour of every source. Pick the sources that let you argue and explain, not just list.
The synthesis question hands you six sources on a topic and a prompt asking you to take a position, then support it using at least three of them. Six sources exist to give you options: some will fit your argument better than others, some will be thin, one or two might be charts or cartoons that need careful reading rather than quoting. Three is the floor, not a target to stop at, but it signals something important: the essay is not graded on how many sources appear. It is graded on what you do with the ones you choose.
The fixed wording of the prompt always asks for a defensible position plus evidence plus explanation of how that evidence supports the position. That third part is commentary, and it is where most of the scoring weight sits. If you cite six sources in an essay that only runs a few hundred words, each one gets a sentence, which leaves no space to say why the evidence matters. Three or four well-used sources, each unpacked with a line or two of reasoning, beats six sources name-checked and dropped. A chart or graph source should never be cited as a bare number; read it for what the trend or contrast establishes about your claim, then cite that.
A strong synthesis essay also resists itself a little. If all the cited sources agree with your position, the essay has nowhere to show reasoning under pressure. Acknowledging a source that complicates or opposes your claim, and explaining why your position still holds, is what separates an argument from a summary. This is the same move the rhetorical-analysis and argument essays reward: using evidence to think, not just to decorate a position already stated.
Key terms
- Synthesis prompt
- The first free-response question, which supplies six sources and asks for an argued position using at least three of them.
- Commentary
- The writer's explanation of how a piece of evidence supports the thesis, scored on Row B alongside evidence.
- Citing
- Referring to a specific source's content or data as support, as opposed to merely mentioning it exists.
- Counterevidence
- A source or point that complicates or opposes the writer's position, useful for showing reasoning under pressure.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does the synthesis prompt's fixed wording tell you exactly what the essay has to do?
- Worked exampleShow me reading a chart source for a claim you can cite rather than a number you just repeat.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the synthesis essay a summary of what the six sources say?
- Going furtherWhat happens when all three cited sources agree with you and nothing ever pushes back?
Check yourself
End of topic.