AP® English Language and Composition · The Exam: Section II, Free-Response and the Rubric
Question 3: Structuring the Argument Essay
The argument essay asks you to build a defensible case, and the most reliable way to do that is to let one body paragraph concede the strongest objection and then answer it. That concession-and-rebuttal move, not a flat refusal to admit weakness, is what makes the position hold up.
A one-sided essay that never acknowledges the other side looks like it hasn't considered the other side. A reader trusts an argument more once it has survived contact with its best objection. So the strongest body paragraph in the essay is often the one that grants something real to the opposition, then shows why the thesis still stands. That paragraph does two jobs in sequence: concede, then rebut. Skip the rebut and the paragraph just argues against you.
Structurally, the concession has to attach back to the thesis, not float free. A paragraph that grants the opposing point and then stops has handed the reader a reason to doubt the claim, with nothing to pull them back. The fix is a return sentence: something that says why the thesis survives even after the concession is granted. Picture a case for a school levy. The third body paragraph can admit the levy burdens renters, who don't get the property tax break homeowners do. That is a real cost. The paragraph only finishes its job if the next sentence explains why the levy is still worth passing anyway, say because the renters benefit from the schools their taxes indirectly fund through rent.
A qualified thesis changes what the body paragraphs owe the reader. Instead of defending a claim outright, a thesis that holds only under some condition, say for towns under a set population, needs the essay to show where that line falls and why. The concession paragraph is well suited to carry that boundary, since it is already the paragraph built to handle limits and exceptions. This is also where sophistication gets built in: a thesis with a stated condition, defended through a real concession, reads as a mind reasoning in public rather than one repeating a slogan.
Key terms
- Concession
- A sentence admitting that an opposing point has real force.
- Rebuttal
- The sentence after a concession that explains why the thesis still holds despite it.
- Qualified thesis
- A claim that states the condition or scope under which it is true rather than claiming it holds everywhere.
- Line of reasoning
- The logical order in which an essay's claims build on each other toward the thesis.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does a concession-and-rebuttal paragraph attach to the thesis instead of undercutting it?
- Worked exampleShow me an outline whose third body paragraph concedes and then answers the strongest objection.
- Going furtherWhat changes in the outline when you qualify your thesis instead of defending it outright?
- Ties togetherHow does a qualified thesis set up the sophistication point and the line of reasoning at once?
Check yourself
End of topic.