Assignment 22: AP Eng Lang Argument Essay: The Value of Possessions in America
You will write an argumentative essay responding to a claim made by Jimmy Santiago Baca regarding American values and the prioritization of possessions over personal stories and experiences. Your essay should present a clear position, support your argument with evidence, and demonstrate effective reasoning and writing skills. You have 40 minutes to complete this essay. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.
Group 1
Carefully read the quotation from Jimmy Santiago Baca above. Then, write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which Baca’s claim about the value of possessions is valid. In your essay, you should:
- 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.
Source 1.1
In a 2019 interview, award-winning poet and memoirist Jimmy Santiago Baca asserted: “In America we value possessions. We would much rather talk about a new car than talk about a story that happened between grandfather and me. We’d much rather get on the computer and play video games and enact some cataclysmic epic than to talk about the epics in our own lives.”
Jimmy Santiago Baca, 2019 interview.
Question 1a
Write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which Baca’s claim about the value of possessions is valid. Be sure to develop your argument with evidence and reasoning, and address the prompt fully.
You have 40 minutes to do this essay. It is TIMED. Do your best — this is just an intro to assess your argument skills.
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