Row A: The Defensible Thesis (0-1 points)

Row A asks one question: did you make a claim worth arguing with? It is not asking whether your thesis is true, interesting, or well phrased. It is asking whether someone could read it and reasonably push back. A thesis that simply states agreed-upon facts, like the age of an institution or who gave a speech, gives the rest of the essay nothing to prove, because nobody was going to argue otherwise.

The test a reader runs is simple: imagine a smart person reading only the thesis. Could they take the opposite side? If the answer is no, there is no point in that line. If the answer is yes, the claim has a position, and a position is what Row A rewards. This is why 'some people think X, some think Y' statements fail on their own. They describe a debate instead of entering one. Entering it means picking a side and stating why, in terms specific enough that an opponent could grab onto them and push back.

This connects directly to the two rows beside it. Row A only checks for a defensible line of reasoning, not whether the essay delivers on it. That is Row B's job, which asks for evidence and commentary that actually support the claim. So an essay can open with a sharp, arguable thesis and still collapse later if the body paragraphs just summarize rather than argue. The thesis point can survive that collapse, because the rows are graded independently, but the essay as a whole will not score well. A strong Row A thesis is necessary, not sufficient.