honor code in essay

What is an honor code and why is it important to academic integrity?

Honor codes reduce instances of academic misconduct. Research has shown that honor codes must be enacted in a supportive manner. When students have a sense of belonging, feel motivated, and have knowledge of academic integrity, they are less likely to engage in academic misconduct. Honor codes are part of this culture of integrity. So, how does this translate to online learning environments? What are some guiding principles to update honor codes and policies in online learning environments?

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An honor code, like the one above, is a promise that all work is the student’s own, a concrete commitment to academic integrity. Students resort to academic dishonesty for various reasons, and the solution is both complex and simple: we need to make academic integrity a core value in our classrooms and/or institutions , beginning with a promise.

I’ve sometimes added an honor statement at the top of student assignments or exams as a visible reminder of the honor code. But what exactly does it mean, and how is this statement reflective of the adopted institutional values? A true honor code is more than a signature dashed off at the top of an assignment or a poster hanging in the classroom. Intended as an ever present reminder of academic integrity to students, does this statement, often present and often unexplored, really make an impact on students ?

Too often during my tenure as a teacher and literacy coach, I was approached with the question, What do I do when I catch someone cheating on an assignment? After the fact is essentially too late because then the solutions tend to be punitive, and the lesson learned isn’t what it could and should be.

It’s best to be proactive about establishing academic integrity within our classrooms. Without making an honor code a living, breathing part of the classroom--ideally within the whole institution--we educators and students find ourselves in a vicious cycle of policing and punishing after the fact. The honor code needs to exist in a formative space that nurtures awareness of academic integrity throughout the learning journey.

An honor code is a fundamental step to establishing a culture of academic integrity. Ideally this occurs on the institutional level, but it is a must for our individual classrooms. The complex part is making that honor code a continued collaborative effort between the students, us as educators, and the assignments themselves. The honor code allows all stakeholders to know, understand, and participate in commonly held standards of academic integrity.

How does this happen? Do your due diligence. Early and often. Purposefully. Collaboratively. Reflectively. It is only through the steady infusion of these collaborative conversations that students and educators develop a strong understanding of academic integrity that can be put into practice.

What are steps towards establishing a formative space that integrate honor statements to the learning journey within our classrooms?

• Establish a culture of integrity. Establishing a common understanding of academic integrity by drafting an honor code, and making it an integral part of the academic community, is a strong first step. Stakeholders such as students, parents, fellow educators, and administration can establish an honor code that is foundational to an educational community. It must then be implemented within individual classrooms with consistent, intentional steps such as explicit instruction and building an awareness of how and why academic integrity is important. This shared understanding between and among all levels of stakeholders helps us build a culture of academic integrity throughout the institution and/or within the classroom. What happens if your institution or other educators don’t institute an honor code? Can we still establish one in our own classrooms? Absolutely yes! When we begin with concrete steps such as creating a shared definition of academic integrity and what it looks like within our classroom, we establish clear understandings of how we can create a culture of academic integrity within our classrooms. The conversations and practices that we establish collaboratively with students are a key factor in the success of the honor code moving forward. While it is our responsibility to introduce these conversations, without student input the honor code will likely be reduced to that dusty old statement that only lives in the header of our assignment!
• Center students. Centering students is critical to centering academic integrity in classroom practice. Best practice dictates not delivering the honor code in a neat little package with all the “right” answers already filled in for students, but encouraging students to contribute their knowledge. When we seek input from students about what academic integrity is and what it does--and does not--look like, students are more likely to understand the intent and come to a common understanding of what practicing it in the classroom looks like. Using collaborative activities to establish what the classroom values are, what it looks like (and does not look like) in the classroom, and how violations will be handled will lead to better student engagement and practice. We build a commitment to academic integrity collaboratively by implementing carefully planned discussions and practices and using resources that will support our class’s commitment to maintaining that honor code.
• Model academic integrity. Modeling academic integrity must be an intrinsic part of classroom practice in ways both visible and subtle. Although many think academic integrity lives in the English classroom, academic dishonesty can manifest itself in every discipline, including examples such as code plagiarism, non-citation of sources, improper attribution, to name only a few ways that academic dishonesty typically appears in student work. Teachers should credit others in our classrooms and work to model the norm we expect in student work. More than simply an act of attribution, we can offer up fair and inclusive assessments that challenge students to demonstrate their knowledge in ways that are fair and invite students’ best efforts. By demonstrating explicitly how academic integrity lives in daily work and assignments, we model how academic integrity is not just one more requirement to be addressed for the “big” project, but simply some deliberate steps as a regular part of our classrooms.
• Commit to working together. Committing to working together within this intentional and formative space is what will determine the role of academic integrity within the classroom or institution. Commitment may look different from classroom to classroom, and that’s perfectly all right. Commitment may take the form of a signed contract, or it may simply be the continuation of discussions regarding what academic integrity does and does not look like. Regardless, renewing that commitment and keeping it in the forefront of students’ minds and work is the goal. And If it’s not working as originally drafted? Then we need to model how to revisit, reflect, and revise so that the honor code can reflect the growth and commitment to academic integrity that we share with our students.

Remember, do your due diligence. Early and often. Purposefully. Collaboratively. Reflectively.

Join us for our upcoming webinar on October 20, 2021, the International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating (IDoA) to learn more about implementing and maintaining honor codes and Turnitin’s newest tools and resources. Turnitin actively encourages positive conversations on academic integrity and is proud to support the International Day of Action. For further information on other activities taking place, visit the IDoA website and share the following hashtags on social media #IntegrityMatters #ExcelWithIntegrity #MyOwnWork

Home — Essay Samples — Education — Honor Codes — The Importance of Honor Codes in Higher Education

The Importance of Honor Codes in Higher Education

• Categories: Honor Codes

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Published: Feb 7, 2024

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Historical perspective, importance of honor codes, challenges of honor codes, solutions to challenges.

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How to Write the Haverford College Essays 2023-2024

Haverford College has two, short supplemental essays: one about your intellectual interests, and one about Haverford’s Honor Code. As a small, academically rigorous school just a short train ride from Philadelphia, Haverford attracts a competitive pool of applicants, so you want to make sure your essays stand out. In this post, we’ll break down both prompts, and explain how to write strong responses to each one.

Haverford College Honor Code

Before we dive into the essays, we want to provide some background on the Haverford Honor code. Here’s what you need to know.

Haverford College has one of the oldest and one of the very few student-run Honor Codes in the U.S. Our Honor Code is not a set of rules, but rather a statement of shared values centered on the concepts of trust, concern, and respect.

Our Honor Code serves as an educational tool in and of itself and provides a powerful framework for our community, emphasizing and supporting qualities we see as essential to a Haverford education. Among other things, the Honor Code at Haverford shapes:

Academic Freedom: The Honor Code fosters an atmosphere emphasizing academic integrity, collaboration over competition, and the cultivation of intellectual curiosity. Differences and disagreement are respected, valued, and embraced, and open discourse is seen as fundamental to the academic endeavor.

Student Agency: The Honor Code upholds a culture in which students are deeply trusted to take substantial ownership of their education and to profoundly shape and define the Haverford community. Student ownership is reflected in self-scheduled exams, in the fact that every student completes a Senior Thesis, in shared responsibility for the residential experience, and of course in oversight of the Honor Code itself.

Community: The Honor Code establishes a supportive environment for living and learning, where the community experience plays a central role in one’s education. The inherent value of every community member is recognized, and diversity in all respects — including diversity of background, experience, and perspective — is nurtured, celebrated, and embraced.

Leadership and Engagement: The Honor Code allows every student to find and develop their own voice, to practice ways of improving community and acting on issues of importance, to learn methods of problem solving and conflict resolution, and to examine the ways they can and will impact the world beyond Haverford.

Before delving into Haverford’s supplementary essays, it is extremely important to have a solid understanding of Haverford’s Honor Code and its role in Haverford’s community. At first glance, Haverford’s Honor Code may appear to be an explicit set of rules that are designed to govern the lives of students, forcing them to comply with specific guidelines and standards. However, the goal of the Honor Code is not to restrict students, but rather to allow for more freedom.

The Honor Code fosters a community grounded in honesty, fairness, and respect. These values create an environment where students feel not only comfortable, but confident sharing their own ideas, opinions, and beliefs. Diversity in thought, belief, culture, and perspective are not only recognized, but accepted and celebrated.

The values of the Honor Code afford students an unprecedented level of control over their education and community. Since it is expected that students adhere to a high degree of honesty and integrity, students are trusted by the administration as well as their professors and peers. For instance, Haverford students don’t have RAs in their dorms, are allowed to take tests without proctors, and are able to schedule their own final exams. These freedoms and privileges can exist because of the values of the Honor Code. 

Haverford’s Honor Code also presents an opportunity for self-governance. At Plenary, an all-student “governing” session, students can debate and vote to revise the Honor Code. In this way, students have the autonomy to change and improve Haverford’s campus. 

While Haverford’s Honor Code is taken seriously, consequences for infractions are not seen as punishments, rather as opportunities to instill lifelong lessons. Consequences are decided upon by the Honor Council, composed of students, not members of the school administration. It is the hope of the Haverford community that through this process, students will take ownership for their bad decisions, learn from them, grow as community members, and realize that they have the power to control their circumstances both inside and outside the classroom.

As you write your supplemental essays, keep Haverford’s values in mind. Incorporating their values into your essays not only shows that you did your research, but also creates connections between yourself and the Haverford community. For instance, Haverford’s collaborative environment could enable you to work with your peers to understand complicated mathematical theorems. Or, Haverford’s respectful and accepting community could empower you to debate the best policies to solve climate change. Regardless of the interests you choose to express in your essays, it is always a good idea to connect your thoughts to Haverford’s Honor Code and core values. 

Haverford College Supplemental Essay Prompts

Prompt 1: Tell us about a topic or issue that sparks your curiosity and gets you intellectually excited. How do you hope to engage with this topic or issue at Haverford? (150-200 words)

Prompt 2: We have highlighted for you some of the values that shape the Haverford community. What are some of the values you seek in your next community? How do Haverford’s values, as demonstrated through our Honor Code, resonate with you? 

As you think about how to answer this question, you might draw from how you have been influenced by other communities you have been a part of, experiences you may have had within your communities, or opportunities you have had to shape or even change your communities. (150-200 words)

Tell us about a topic or issue that sparks your curiosity and gets you intellectually excited. how do you hope to engage with this topic or issue at haverford (150-200 words).

This prompt is an excellent opportunity for you to showcase your interest in a specific subject or topic. Although it is not a “Why Major?” prompt, as you have the freedom to write about any of your intellectual interests, not just your intended major, the overall structure of the essay will be similar: you want to select one of your interests, which could be as obscure as Victorian fashion or as common as math, and explain why and how your topic excites your intellectual curiosity, as well as how you’ll be able to continue learning about it at Haverford.

Starting your essay with an anecdote is a great way to show your interest in your topic to readers, rather than simply telling them about it. For example, you could begin by telling the story of how you became interested in art after your first visit to an art museum. Or, you could describe what thoughts and emotions you experience when creating art. Since you’re dealing with a low word count, your story should be pretty simple, as you don’t have the space to flesh out something complicated.

The next part of your essay should focus on the deeper reason why you are so interested in your topic or subject. In other words, what specifically about your topic makes you excited to learn more? Maybe you love science because it explains how everything in the world works, from plants growing to playing tennis. Or, maybe you’re passionate about music because it has the power to inspire and connect people.

While this essay is a short one, you ideally also want to explain, at least briefly, what you do to satisfy your curiosity about this topic. Do you read every available book on Egyptian pyramids? Do you debate the most successful political campaign strategies with your family at dinner? This extra detail will give your reader a clearer sense of how your interest in your topic manifests on a daily basis, which will make your interest feel more tangible and genuine.

Finally, you want to connect your interest in your topic to your potential future as a Haverford student. Hop onto Haverford’s website, and do some research on classes, clubs, or other opportunities at Haverford that will allow you to keep learning about it. Since you probably won’t have much room left by this point, you want to pick just one or two things, as otherwise the end of your essay will feel cramped and rushed.

For example, you could talk about how the College Year in Athens study abroad program would deepen your understanding of Greek mythology, by allowing you to see firsthand many of the sites that were most important to the Ancient Greeks. 

Alternatively, you could write about how the clubs Charcuterie Union and Food for Thought would expand upon your interest in cooking, and help you develop a more comprehensive understanding of the role food can play in different people’s lives.

We have highlighted for you some of the values that shape the Haverford community. What are some of the values you seek in your next community? How do Haverford’s values, as demonstrated through our Honor Code, resonate with you?

Brainstorming Your Topic

This prompt tells you pretty much exactly what it wants to know: the values you’re looking for in a college community, and how those values align with Haverford’s. However, while the questions are clear, answering them thoughtfully may take some time, as you’ll need to reflect on what your values truly are.

With a question as open-ended as “What do you value in your communities?” sometimes asking yourself related, slightly more focused questions can help you brainstorm more efficiently. Here are some examples of those kinds of questions:

• What are some of your favorite communities you’re a part of? What makes you love them so much?
• When you think about your friends, what qualities do many of them share?
• Look at your complete college list—why are you applying to this particular set of schools, out of all the colleges in the United States and across the world?

The actual values you choose are much less important than those values being genuinely important to you. One applicant might write an excellent essay about trust, while someone else might write an equally strong one about open-mindedness. But if you try to force a connection to something that isn’t really one of your primary values, your reader will be able to tell you aren’t being fully authentic.

Finally, as you’re brainstorming you’ll likely come up with a list of several different values. But because this essay is so short, you’ll want to focus on just one, or two at the most, once you start writing. Otherwise, you won’t be able to give each value the attention it needs, and your essay will end up feeling all over the place.

Tips for Writing Your Essay

In your actual essay, the most important thing to do is connect the value or two you’re focusing on to Haverford’s values, specifically those laid out in the Honor Code. If you’re having a hard time doing that, you may want to go back to the drawing board. For example, valuing a good sense of humor is a wonderful thing, but doesn’t connect super well to anything in the Honor Code.

A better thing to focus on would be, say, speaking up about what’s important to you. You could easily connect that value to the following two lines of the Honor Code:

• “The Honor Code allows every student to find and develop their own voice, to practice ways of improving community and acting on issues of importance.”
• “The Honor Code upholds a culture in which students are deeply trusted to take substantial ownership of their education and to profoundly shape and define the Haverford community.”

Once you feel confident that you’ve linked your own values to Haverford’s, you want to think about how to clearly explain that link to admissions officers. Here, Haverford is once again being considerate, and telling you pretty much exactly how they want you to do that, in the second paragraph of the prompt.

To summarize, that paragraph is telling you to use concrete examples and anecdotes to explain how you came to have this particular value. In other words, show, don’t tell, because otherwise, your reader won’t really understand what you having this value says about your personality as a whole. Plenty of people value outspokenness, but the point of the college essay is to distinguish yourself from other applicants. So, you want to show what the value you have chosen means in the context of your life specifically, and why that value’s importance in your life has inspired you to apply to Haverford. 

For example, you could talk about how you hated attention as a kid, and preferred to just spend time with your family’s pets. But during the pandemic, seeing people adopt pets for company without knowing how to take care of them frustrated you to the point that you started your own YouTube channel, to explain how to avoid making common first-time pet owner mistakes. To your surprise, the channel became extremely popular, and many people wrote comments thanking you for your help. Speaking up is still hard for you, though, and being on Haverford’s campus, where outspokenness is encouraged, will help you continue to get better at it.

Mistakes to Avoid

Because this prompt is so explicit about what it wants, it’s pretty hard to get totally off-track. The only thing you really want to be wary of is using your space in an inefficient way. 200 words will disappear quickly, so you want to make sure you’re being thoughtful about how long you spend addressing each part of the prompt.

Otherwise, you may end up accidentally using 160 words explaining how you came to have the value you’re focusing on, and then have to cram in the connection to Haverford at the very end. There’s no one correct breakdown of how long you should spend on each point of your essay, as ideally one thing flows naturally into the next. Just make sure the connection to Haverford gets enough room to breathe, as, since that part is likely going to come at the end, it’s at the most risk of getting cut short.

Where to Get Your Haverford Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your Haverford essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools.  Find the right advisor for you  to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

AP® English Language

The ultimate guide to 2015 ap® english language frqs.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

There were once two neighbors who lived in a small town on the edge of a roaring river. Their houses were set on piles of brick as a precaution for when the river would flood. The bricks had worked for a while, but they began to wear away over the years, and it had left the houses unstable.

One of the neighbors was always conscious of the fact that there could be another flood, so he spent countless hours building and fortifying the foundation of his house. He would get up early on the weekends and go to sleep late on the weeknights to rebuild his home the right way. While he was busy working, his neighbor would sleep in and go out at night, always commenting to his hard-working neighbor that there would be time for work later.

The hours he spent working resulted in a much stronger foundation. He eventually put the house on a set of sturdy stilts that would hold up against the power of a rushing river. He was never able to take his neighbor up on the offer to go out, but that spring when the waters of the river came rushing toward their houses, it all paid off. His house was left standing, while the flood destroyed his neighbor’s house.

Taking your AP® Language test puts you in the unique situation to choose your path. You can be like the man who put off preparing, going into the test blind. Or you can be like the man who spent long hours in preparation, making sure he was ready when the time came.

You want to be like the man who ensured his house had a stable foundation. The foundation you are building, though, will reflect the time you put into learning how to write stellar essays. That foundation includes learning about what the essays require, the best way to write them, and the scoring process. If you prepare yourself for the Free Response Questions, your writing will stand up to the flood, at least metaphorically.

Test Breakdown

The Free Response Questions (FRQs) are the essay portion of the AP® Language exam. The exam itself has two parts, the first is a multiple choice section, and the second is the FRQs. This guide provides an overview, strategies, and examples of the FRQs from the CollegeBoard. There is a guide to the multiple choice here .

The FRQ section has two distinct parts: 15 minutes for reading a set of texts and 120 minutes for writing three essays. The 15 minute “reading period” is designed to give you time to read through the documents for question 1 and develop a thoughtful response. Although you are advised to give each essay 40 minutes, there is no set amount of time for any of the essays. You may divide the 120 minutes however you want.

The three FRQs are each designed to test a different style of writing. The first question is always a synthesis essay – which is why they give you 15 minutes to read all of the sources you must synthesize. The second essay is rhetorical analysis, requiring you to analyze a text through your essay. The third paper is an argumentative essay.

Each essay is worth one-third of the total grade for the FRQ section, and the FRQ section is worth 55% of the total AP® test. Keep that in mind as you prepare for the exam, while the multiple-choice section is hard, the essays are worth more overall – so divide your study time evenly.

The scale for essay scores ranges from 1-9. A score of 1 being illegible or unintelligible, while a score of 9 is going to reflect the best attributes and aspects of early college level writing. You should be shooting to improve your scores to the passing range, which is 5 or above. Note that if you are struggling with the multiple choice section, a 9-9-9 on the essays can help make up for it.

The Tale of Three Essays

If you are currently taking an AP® class, you have probably experienced the style and formats of the three assignments. You may have learned about the specifics of the different types of essays in class, and you may have already found out which of the three is easiest for you. However, you must possess skill in all three to master the AP® test.

The First Essay (Synthesis)

The first essay on the test is going to be the synthesis essay . This essay can be the trickiest to master, but once you do get the hang of it, you will be one step closer to learning the others. The synthesis requires you to read six texts, which can be poems, articles, short stories, or even political cartoons.

Once you have read and analyzed the texts, you are asked to craft an argument using at least three of the documents from the set. The sources should be used to build and support your argument, and you must integrate them into a coherent whole.

On the 2015 FRQ section of the AP® exam, the synthesis essay focused on university honor codes. The complete prompt for the section is below:

If we break down the task it is asking you to use the six sources to create a “coherent, well-developed argument” from your own position on whether or not schools should create, maintain, change, or eliminate the honors system. As you read this you might have some experience with the idea of honor codes; perhaps you have one from your high school. You can use that experience, but your response needs to focus on the given texts.

To find the actual documents you can go here . Taking a look at the documents will provide some context for the essay samples and their scores.

The question is scored on a scale from 1-9, with nine being the highest. Let’s take a look at some examples of student essays, along with comments from the readers – to break down the dos and don’ts of the FRQ section.

You should always strive to get the highest score possible. Writing a high scoring paper involves learning some practices that will help you write the best possible synthesis essay. Below are three examples taken from student essays.

Craft a Well-Developed Thesis

One of the key elements of scoring high on the synthesis essay section of the FRQ is to craft a well-developed thesis that integrates three sources.

This thesis is from a high scoring essay based off of question 1 from the 2015 FRQ. Take note of some of the good things that this student is doing:

• The essay mentions three examples that they will reference throughout the rest of their essay: promotes a healthy academic environment, statistically lowers the percentage of academic dishonesty in school, and adaptability to school environments.

Part of a strong thesis is the use of three reasons to support the main claim. Each of the reasons that supports your claim should come from a different source text. By using a three-reason support of your claim, you ensure that you have at least the three required sources integrated. Remember : to get a 6 or higher requires 3 or more sources.

• The intro always introduces a counterclaim as a contrast to the thesis. The student points out that, “Some argue that honor codes should not be implemented for reasons such as ineffectiveness of the code and creation of a “big-brother”-esque environment…”

This counterclaim sets the student up to include a paragraph that argues against the claims posed in some of the articles, allowing them to use more of the given sources to their advantage. Using a counterclaim sets them up to write a well-supported essay.

Use Sources Effectively

Another essential part of scoring well on the synthesis essay is to utilize the sources effectively. The student demonstrates their command of the text through their second and third paragraphs:

The student seamlessly integrates the different sources in their essay. Notice how in the section above the student can go from one source (Vangell) into information and argument based off of another source (Dirmeger and Cartwright). The ability to use the sources together to form a coherent and cohesive whole is one factor that can set your essay apart from other students’.

Have a Well-Developed Reason for Each Source

Lastly, you will want to ensure that you give a well-developed explanation of the texts when speaking about them. Take this for example:

The student demonstrates deep understanding, and it shows in their writing. You should read a range of texts to prepare for the test. In the example above the student demonstrates a few key skills:

• The student establishes that they understand that Bacall’s comic is satiric, and isn’t meant to seriously. The analysis shows the reader that the student understood the text, and was able to grasp the nuance of the satire.

• The student also establishes that the use of the spy cam is connected to a philosophical idea like totalitarianism – showing the student understands how the text relates to other parts of the world as a whole.

• The student uses the cartoon as a way to jump into his argument, showing how the fears of critics are unwarranted.

There are some practices that students should avoid on FRQ 1 of the test. Students who do these things can expect to receive low scores on their essays, and if you wish to score above a five, you should avoid them at all costs.

Don’t Change Your Argument Midway Through Your Essay.

Changing your argument creates confusion and will make your essay weaker overall. Let’s look at a few pieces from a student essay to see how they change their arguments midway through:

Notice that this student talks about the honor system at their school. The student say that it should be maintained in its current form because it is fair, but also punishes students. This statement is taken from the end of the intro paragraph and sets this up as the main crux of the student’s argument – with the idea that they will expand this idea in their paragraphs later.

However, they do not expand the argument with any evidence:

The student continues to talk about how the system at their school is stable, but at the same time, they offer no proof of the actual policy at their school. They use words like “possible” and “fairly” to describe the system – which seems to suggest they don’t have a good grasp of it.

Up to this point, the student has been somewhat consistent, despite being vague and offering no evidence to support the point about how their school’s honor code is a good example of an honor system that works. In the next paragraph, though, the student’s essay takes a complete turn:

In their second to the last paragraph, the student turns from the idea that their school’s honor code is “solid” and instead state that they should change it to incorporate a peer-enforced honor system. This line of argument doesn’t go well with the rest of their essay and even acts to contradict their main points.

Most likely the student added this part to their paper after they realized that they had only utilized a single source. The essay ends with confusion and two sources used inadequately. The lesson to learn from this bad essay is that we should stay consistent in our arguments, sticking to the points we discuss at the beginning.

Don’t Fail to Argue the Prompt

One of the easiest ways to fail question one is to write an essay that doesn’t answer the task in the prompt. If we take a look at a sample of a student’s writing, we can see what it looks like when the aim of the essay isn’t focused on the prompt:

This student is not focusing on whether or not honor codes work. The student is instead giving information and background about honor codes. This explanation goes on for the entire introductory paragraph of the essay, but in the end, the reader has no idea what the student is going to say in the rest of the essay.

The use of information instead of argument is an ineffective strategy for the AP® Language exam, and you should avoid it. Don’t try to make the essay about something other than the assigned prompt. If you stick to the prompt, you will have a better shot at getting a high score like an 8 or 9.

AP® Readers’ Tips:

• Read every text before you start your essay. One of the pitfalls of many students is that they do not use enough sources and try to fit them in after the fact.
• Plan ahead. Ensure that you understand what you are going to be saying and how you will incorporate the different sources into your writing. You will need at least three sources to get above a 6, so ensure you have at least that many mapped in your plan.

The Second Essay (Rhetorical Analysis)

The second essay on the FRQ section is always a rhetorical analysis essay. This essay will focus on analyzing a text for an important aspect of the writing. In the case of the 2015 FRQ, the analysis was supposed to concentrate on rhetorical strategies:

The prompt asks the reader to carefully read the article written by Cesar Chavez and write an essay analyzing the rhetorical choices he uses in the article. Rhetorical choices are simply another term for rhetorical strategies and include things like the rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical devices.

Let’s examine the do’s and don’ts for the second essay.

Utilize Specific Examples from the Text in Your Analysis

In this high scoring essay, the student goes into their analysis right away. The student points out that Chavez uses precise diction, a rhetorical device, to get his point across. This specific example shows the depth and understanding of the student’s analysis and sets the student up to receive a high score.

Whatever you identify in the text for your analysis, you should be able to point out precisely how it supports your main point. The more depth you can give in your analysis, the more accurate you can be with your comments, the better you will do.

Use Outside Knowledge Effectively to Strengthen Your Argument

The ability to pull in outside knowledge from your classes or books you have read will help enhance your analysis. Let’s take a look at how a student did this on the 2015 exam:

In the example above, the student can provide a more in-depth analysis of Chavez’s words by connecting Chavez’s mention of Gandhi to background knowledge of what Gandhi did in British-controlled India.

The student can provide a comparison of sorts and show how effective Chavez’s comparison is by offering background information about Gandhi’s efforts in India.

Whenever possible, bring in background information that will help with your analysis. It might only seem like extra knowledge about the topic or author, but it could provide some insight into why they chose to write about something or show the full effect of their argument.

Some things to avoid on the literary analysis essay include misreading the passage and providing inadequate analysis of the text.

Don’t Misread the Text

One of the easiest ways to lower your score is to explain something from the text that is incorrect. Let’s look at one of the examples of this from a student essay:

The article mentions that the farm workers union was inspired by the work of Martin Luther King Jr. The student’s misreading of the article led them to write, “Chavez’s appeal reached out to an audience of African-American working for justice and equality…” This analysis is a blatant misread of the passage because nowhere does it signify that Chavez was reaching out to African-Americans specifically.

This type of misread may seem minor, but it indicates that the student’s grasp of the article is less than what they need to analyze it in depth. It will also alert the reader to that fact, and they may look more closely for other signs of misunderstanding and shallow reading.

Don’t Over-simplify Your Points

You will want to ensure that your analysis is detailed and gets to the very root of the text. Here is an example of simple analysis from a student:

The student references lines from the text, but the student does not go into detail about what those lines say, nor does the student elaborate on why “…readers are overcome with a sense of duty and motivation.” This simplistic analysis of the text leaves a lot to be desired, and it received a low score because it didn’t provide the necessary details to analyze the text accurately.

You should elaborate on each piece of evidence that you bring forth from the text, and be specific about what in the text you are analyzing. The more you pay attention to the smaller details, the better your score will be in the long run.

AP® Readers’ Tips

• Pay attention to both the holistic (overall) and analytic (particular) views of the piece. You will need to understand both the text as a whole and the specific parts of the text to analyze it effectively.
• Don’t just analyze the rhetoric used, but instead connect the rhetoric to the specific purpose that Chavez hopes to achieve through his speech. This rule applies to any rhetorical analysis essay.

The Third Essay (Argument)

The third and last essay of the FRQ does not respond to a particular text. Instead, the prompt focuses on crafting an argument about a particular issue. Your essay will need to argue a particular position, though most of the questions put forth by the exam will not be simple either/or questions.

Let’s look at the prompt for the third essay from 2015:

Before we get into the do’s and don’ts of the essay, let’s talk about the particular challenge of this task. You are presented with a scenario, in this case, it deals with small talk, and you are asked to create an argument about that issue.

For 2015, the scenario asks you to argue what value or function you see in small or “polite” talk. You are asked to reference a culture or community you are familiar with, and use evidence from some sources.

A few of the most important things you can do to ensure you score well on the essay include clearly articulating your thesis and use every example to support your main claim.

Clearly Articulate Your Thesis

Like with the synthesis essay a clear thesis is important for the argumentative essay. The thesis should be clear in articulating the essay’s claim, and it should demonstrate that the student understood the requirements of the prompt. Let’s examine a well-written thesis statement:

The student, in this case, chose to argue that polite speech serves the purpose of making others more receptive to your purpose. The student then points out three specific situations where polite speech matters: when speaking to superiors, juries, and the general public.

At the end of the thesis statement, the student makes plain the exact nature of the exchange of polite speech for the desired goal. The clarity of their speech and the depth of their understanding is made clear by their command of language.

Use Examples to Support Main Claim

The best essays are going to use all of their examples to support their main claim. In the case of the third essay, the student sets the essay up so that every example will support the idea that polite speech works as an exchange between those with power and those seeking their purpose.

Let’s take a look at one example of how this support works:

The student ensures that they are supporting their main claim. The student is very explicit in tying the example back to the claim with phrases like, “polite speech is an expectation in an environment like school”.

The student points out that there is an expectation of polite speech, and then shows what would happen if polite speech wasn’t used, “…without its implementation, students’ words, and by extension, requests or queries would be disregarded.” This evidence shows that not only is this type of speech required in a school setting but that it is what allows people to get what they want.

This passage demonstrates the level of depth and connection you must make from your evidence to your claim if you want to score well on the third essay of the FRQ. Keep the relationship in mind, and ensure that all your examples explicitly support your claim.

If we take a look at the essay samples from 2015, there are few examples that stand out as don’ts. In particular, you should avoid circular reasoning, and a failure to use variety in your sentences and writing.

Don’t be Unclear in Your Writing

When you are making an argument, and it is based solely on your experiences and reasoning, it can be easy to get bogged down in the details and fail to write a clear well-reasoned essay. You need to take your time and ensure you use clear, well-reasoned logic in your essay.

Let’s take a look at a sample from an essay that has circular reasoning:

The essay doesn’t have a clear, logical path. The thesis statement that polite speech is polite doesn’t add anything to the discussion of the value of polite speech. Their essay is set up by this reasoning to fail. You should avoid circular arguments and logical fallacies at all costs in your argumentative essay.

There is a three-part process to creating an argument and avoiding the mistakes from the sample above. Arguments have three main parts:

• Claim: What you are arguing is true.

• Warrant: Your explanation and reasoning for why it is true.

• Evidence: The proof that your warrant uses to prove your claim.

Without any of these three parts any argument is incomplete, and like the sample above – an argument that is incomplete will fail to earn you a high score.

Don’t use a Repetitive Sentence Structure

It seems simple, but many students use simple and repeated sentence structure. You don’t want your writing to become repetitive, so instead try to create variety. Let’s take a look at a student that used repetition too often:

Now the mistake this writer makes may have been done by accident, but it perfectly represents the problem of repetitive structure. It would be advised that you reread your essay before time is up to ensure that you don’t have any repetitions this obvious (In short…In short. above).

This problem can be solved by using a variety of sentence structures, lengths, and formations. You should work diligently as your practice to vary all the elements of your sentences and work to elevate the diction (word choice) you use to make it more formal and academic.

• Keep track of all parts of the prompt. One of the easiest ways to drop points is to forget to answer an important aspect of the prompt. In the case of the 2015 prompt, the essay needs to discuss both a community that is familiar with the student and the value of “polite” speech in that community.
• Try to reference literary examples in your writing. There wasn’t much opportunity to reference readings in the 2015 prompt, but if you can reference the different literature you have read as evidence, it can help boost your scores.

General AP® Readers’ Tips

• Make a plan. One of the best things you can do for any essay you are writing under a time crunch is make a thought-out plan. Sometimes, in the heat of writing, it is easy to forget where we are in our arguments. Having a simple outline can save you from that misfortune.

• Answer the question in your introduction, and be direct. Directly answering the prompt is one of the easiest ways to ensure you get a higher score.

• Clearly, indent your paragraphs, and ensure that you always have an easy to navigate structure. Topic sentences are a must, so make sure those figure into your structure.

• Use evidence especially quotes from the texts, and explain what they mean. You need to make an explicit connection between the evidence you use, and how it supports your points.

• Part of all great writing is variety. Vary your sentence structures, don’t make all of your sentences short or choppy, but instead try to inject some creativity into your writing. Utilize transitions, complex sentences, and elevated diction in your writing.

• Use active voice, and make every word add to the paper as a whole. Avoid fluff; you don’t want your paper to look bad because you are trying to pad your word count.

Wrapping up the Ultimate Guide to 2015 AP® English Language FRQs

Now that you better understand the expectations of the AP® Language and Composition FRQ section, you are one step closer to getting your five on the exam. Take what you have learned in this guide, and work on applying it to your writing. So, now it is time to go practice to perfection.

If you have any more tips or awesome ideas for how to study for the AP® Lang FRQ add them in the comments below.

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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Honor / The Significance of Honor Codes

The Significance of Honor Codes

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