Unit 2 moves from understanding an audience to persuading it: appeals, strategic and sufficient evidence, and the thesis that ties an argument together. This review draws the ideas together and asks seven questions that combine two or more topics. The questions are original Marlbridge practice, not past exam questions, and the rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric. Passages not credited to a named public-domain author were written by Marlbridge for practice.
Big ideas of Unit 2
- Writers use their perceptions of an audience’s beliefs, values and needs. Common ground and concession are reliable moves (Topic 2.1).
- Emotion tells an audience that a claim matters. It is built from detail, connotation and values language (Topic 2.2).
- Appeals are logos, ethos and pathos. Name the primary appeal and explain what it does (Topic 2.3).
- Evidence is chosen to do a job: illustrate, clarify, set a mood, exemplify, associate or amplify (Topic 2.4).
- Evidence is sufficient when quantity and quality fit the scope of the claim (Topic 2.5).
- A thesis is the overarching claim, stated or implied (Topic 2.6), and a defensible thesis needs a defence and can be defended (Topic 2.7).
One-table summary
| Question to ask | Idea | Typical error |
|---|---|---|
| What does this audience believe, value, need? | Audience analysis | “They are adults” |
| Which feeling or value does this detail touch? | Pathos and values | Calling it “emotional” and stopping |
| Which appeal is primary here? | Logos, ethos, pathos | Forcing one label on a sentence |
| What job does this evidence do? | Strategic evidence | Calling it “an example” |
| Is there enough of the right evidence? | Sufficiency | One case for a sweeping claim |
| What is the overarching claim? | Thesis | Choosing a fact or sub-claim |
| Does the thesis need and survive a defence? | Defensible thesis | An announcement or restated prompt |
Questions
Try each question before opening its answer.
Question 1 (constructed response · 2.1, 2.2)
On 4 March 1861 Abraham Lincoln told the people of the seceded states: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.” Near the end he said: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” Explain how each sentence shows an understanding of the audience’s needs, beliefs or values.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. The first sentence answers the audience’s greatest fear, that his election meant federal interference with slavery in their states, by naming the fear plainly and closing loopholes with “directly or indirectly”. It meets a need for reassurance and clears the ground for his argument that the Union is perpetual. The second sentence appeals to common ground and a shared past: it assumes the audience still values the bonds of friendship and tries to recast the dispute as a quarrel between friends, not a contest between enemies, which appeals to emotion and values and aims to lower resistance.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (6 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the fear or need the first sentence answers. |
| 1 | Comments on specific wording (“directly or indirectly”). |
| 1 | Explains how the first sentence prepares the ground. |
| 1 | Identifies common ground or shared values in the second sentence. |
| 1 | Explains the effect of “friends” versus “enemies” on the audience. |
| 1 | Writes about effect, not only labels. |
Question 2 (multiple choice · 2.3)
Which sentence is primarily logos?
- (A) “I have been a magistrate for thirty years.”
- (B) “Because the crossing has no light, children must judge the gaps in traffic themselves, and some will misjudge them.”
- (C) “I will never forget the face of that child.”
- (D) “We owe it to our neighbours.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It presents a chain of reasoning from cause to consequence. The first builds ethos, the second pathos and the fourth appeals to a value.
- (A) is wrong: builds credibility, which is ethos.
- (C) is wrong: evokes feeling, which is pathos.
- (D) is wrong: appeals to values and obligation.
Question 3 (constructed response · 2.3, 2.5)
Susan B. Anthony (1873): “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.” (a) Explain how the sentence works through logos. (b) Explain how the same sentence works through pathos. (c) Why does a claim about who “the people” are call for an argument from a founding text and not only from examples?
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) Logos: the sentence argues from the Constitution’s opening words by testing “the people” against two narrower readings and rejecting both, which leaves only the inclusive reading. (b) Pathos: the repeated pattern “not… nor yet… but” builds a rhythm that rises to “the whole people”, so the conclusion feels like a widening of justice. (c) A claim about whom the founding words include is a claim about meaning, so its strongest support is the text itself and the reasoning drawn from it; examples of women’s lives would show hardship but could not settle what the words mean.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Explains the narrowing and rejecting as the logic. |
| 1 | Explains how the argument leaves an inclusive reading. |
| 1 | Explains the rhythm and widening scope as pathos. |
| 1 | Links pathos to an effect on the audience. |
| 1 | Explains why a founding text suits a claim about meaning. |
Question 4 (constructed response · 2.4, 2.5)
Read this paragraph, written by Marlbridge with invented figures.
Our town should reopen its swimming pool. Last month my nephew learned to swim at a pool in the next town. Pools are fun. A lot of people like them. Pools are everywhere.
(a) Explain two reasons the evidence is not well chosen or not sufficient. (b) Rewrite the paragraph in four sentences, using two different types of evidence (invented for practice), and name them.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) The evidence is one personal anecdote about a pool in another town, which is too little and does not bear on the town’s need; the remaining sentences are vague popularity statements that do not support the claim. (b) “Our town should reopen its swimming pool, because the nearest alternative is a 40-minute bus ride away. In a survey of 300 families, 212 said their children could not swim confidently by age eleven (statistic). The pool’s former instructor told the council that 90 children a year learned to swim there (testimony or expert opinion). A town that wants its children to be safe near the coast should not make learning to swim a luxury.”
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies that one anecdote about another town is too little or irrelevant. |
| 1 | Identifies that the other sentences are vague or do not support the claim. |
| 1 | Rewrite uses one named type of evidence. |
| 1 | Rewrite uses a second, different named type. |
| 1 | Rewrite keeps a claim and links evidence to it. |
Question 5 (constructed response · 2.6, 2.7)
Read this passage, written by Marlbridge.
At nine o’clock each morning, forty children enter our school through a gate on a road with no pavement. The council has said for three years that the pavement will come “when funds allow”. Meanwhile, the nearest hospital is eleven miles away. A road is not safe because we have not yet had an accident on it; the council should build the pavement this year.
(a) Quote the thesis. (b) Rewrite it as a stronger thesis that includes a reason and a limit, in one or two sentences.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) “The council should build the pavement this year.” (b) “The council should build a pavement on the school road this year, because it has delayed for three years while forty children a day walk on the carriageway and the nearest hospital is eleven miles away.”
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Quotes the thesis (the final clause, or the full final sentence). |
| 1 | Rewrite takes a clear position. |
| 1 | Rewrite includes a reason drawn from the passage. |
| 1 | Rewrite is specific (this road, this year). |
| 1 | Rewrite is one or two sentences and not a plan or announcement. |
Accept either the final clause or the full final sentence as the thesis.
Question 6 (constructed response · 2.1, 2.7)
Prompt (written by Marlbridge): “Some people believe that schools should require students to learn a second language. Write an essay that argues your position.” Your audience is a group of parents. (a) Name one belief, one value and one need the parents might hold. (b) Write a defensible thesis. (c) Name one choice of evidence and one concession you would use, and say how each suits the audience.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) Belief: learning a language takes time away from core subjects. Value: giving children every opportunity. Need: to know that the extra subject will help their children’s future. (b) “Schools should require every pupil to study a second language until age fourteen, because the cognitive and career benefits outweigh the loss of a few core lessons.” (c) Evidence: a follow-up study of pupils who learned a language, showing no fall in other results, which answers the parents’ belief and need. Concession: “Parents are right to worry about a crowded timetable,” which acknowledges their belief and builds trust before the argument continues.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | A plausible belief, value and need named. |
| 1 | The thesis takes a position and gives a reason. |
| 1 | The thesis is specific and not a plan. |
| 1 | Evidence choice suits a named belief or need. |
| 1 | A concession is named and its audience effect explained. |
Accept any plausible beliefs, values and needs.
Question 7 (constructed response · 1.2, 2.2, 2.3)
Frederick Douglass delivered an address in Rochester, New York, on 5 July 1852, in which he asked: “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” (a) Explain how the occasion works as the exigence. (b) State his purpose. (c) Name one appeal that the question uses and explain how it works.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) The invitation to speak at a gathering to mark the national holiday of liberty gives him an audience already thinking about freedom, which he can turn against the celebration. (b) His purpose is to make an audience that celebrates liberty confront the existence of slavery and to move them to oppose it. (c) Pathos and values: the question asks listeners to see their holiday from the position of the enslaved, so it engages their sense of fairness and shame and sets the speech’s argument about contradiction. It could also be called logos, since it sets up a logical contradiction between the celebration and slavery.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Exigence identified as the invitation or holiday occasion. |
| 1 | Explains why the occasion sharpens the argument. |
| 1 | Purpose stated as an effect on the audience. |
| 1 | Names an appeal. |
| 1 | Explains how the question works on the audience. |
After the review
Tick off the topic checklists for Unit 2, then move on to Unit 3: Commentary, Line of Reasoning and Methods of Development.