Documenting United States History

Putting It All Together 189

Patterns and synthesis go hand in hand. Your ability to combine evidence

into available frameworks or processes predicts your ability to present patterns in

your use of evidence and explanations.

Consider the following prompt to illustrate the effective use of patterns in

historical evidence and explanations:

Characterize the social debates that occurred in the early nineteenth

century as featured in this chapter. To what extent did political ideology,

economic necessity, and sectional interests drive these debates?

Step 1 Understand the prompt, and identify the key words

For a review of this step, see Building AP® Writing Skills in Chapter 1 (p. 22).

Step 2 Brainstorm

For a review of this step, see Building AP® Writing Skills in Chapter 4 (p. 111).

Step 3 Identify and organize your evidence

Complete the graphic organizer below to help you uncover patterns in historical

evidence. The columns allow you to evaluate the sources in terms of their effec-

tiveness in supporting your position. The columns also give you a head start with

your explanations, which are as important as the evidence you provide.

Note, too, that some examples (such as Doc. 7.5) may be used more than once,

especially if their arguments apply to multiple factors.

Political ideology evidence

(ranked in terms of

importance)

Economic necessity

evidence (ranked in

terms of importance)

Sectional interests

evidence (ranked in

terms of importance)

Doc. 7.2, John C. Calhoun,

Address to the Southern States

Doc. 7.5, Lyman Beecher,

“The Evils of Intemperance”

Doc. 7.8, John C.

Calhoun, “Slavery a

Positive Good”

Doc. 7.5, Lyman Beecher, “The

Evils of Intemperance”

Doc. 7.11, Asher Durand,

Dover Plains

Step 4 Outline your response

When you organize your evidence, a good rule of thumb is to save the best for

last. For example, your outline may feature a section on political ideology, as

shown here:

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