Unit 3 is about what happens between a claim and its proof: the commentary that links evidence to a claim, the synthesis of sources, the line of reasoning that carries a reader to the thesis, the flaws that can break it and the methods of development that organise it. 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 and sources not credited to a named public-domain author were written by Marlbridge for practice.
Big ideas of Unit 3
- Evidence does not speak for itself. Commentary explains and connects it (Topic 3.1).
- Synthesis integrates others’ arguments into your own and credits them (Topic 3.2).
- A line of reasoning is the path to the thesis; paragraph order reveals it (Topic 3.3).
- Commentary works across the whole argument at evidence, paragraph, bridge and thesis levels (Topic 3.4).
- Flaws make an argument specious or illogical; explain what is wrong, not just the label (Topic 3.5).
- Methods of development (narration, cause-effect, comparison-contrast, definition, description) let the audience trace the reasoning (Topic 3.6), and narration and cause-effect each need two halves (Topic 3.7).
One-table summary
| Question to ask | Idea | Typical error |
|---|---|---|
| What does this evidence mean and why does it support the claim? | Commentary | Repeating the claim |
| Have I credited and connected every source? | Synthesis | Summarising sources in turn |
| How does each paragraph lead to the next? | Line of reasoning | A list with no order |
| Is the significance for the thesis stated? | Whole-argument commentary | “This is very significant” |
| Does the conclusion follow from the premises? | Flaws | Naming a fallacy without explaining it |
| Which method is dominant and what does it do? | Methods of development | Calling it “an example” |
| Does the story have reflection; does each causal link have support? | Narration, cause-effect | Story with no meaning; chains of assumptions |
Questions
Try each question before opening its answer.
Question 1 (constructed response · 3.3, 3.4)
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (1863) begins: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Its second section says: “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” Its third says: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work.” (a) Describe the line of reasoning across the three sections. (b) Explain how the word “now” and the phrase “so conceived and so dedicated” act as commentary linking the first section to the second.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) The sections move from past to present to future: the founding ideal is set out, the war is presented as a test of that ideal, and the living are charged with finishing the work. Because the nation was founded on equality and the war tests whether it can survive, the living must complete the task; the thesis (that government of the people shall not perish) comes at the end of a reasoning-then-claim sequence. (b) “Now” shifts the audience from the founding to the present moment, and “so conceived and so dedicated” repeats the language of the first sentence, linking the war back to the founding principle. Both words explain the relevance of the founding to the present, so the war is shown as a test of the ideal and not as a separate event.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Describes the past, present and future sections. |
| 1 | Explains how each step leads to the next. |
| 1 | Identifies the reasoning-then-claim pattern or the chronological ordering. |
| 1 | Explains “now” as a bridge. |
| 1 | Explains “so conceived and so dedicated” as an echo that links the founding to the war. |
Question 2 (constructed response · 3.1)
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote in 1792: “Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.” Write four sentences that (a) embed this quotation, (b) explain the cause-effect relationship and (c) explain why the point matters to her argument for women’s education.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. Wollstonecraft argues that educating women is the cure for submission: she writes that if we “strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.” The sentence presents education as a cause and the end of blind obedience as its effect, so women’s lack of independence is shown to be a product of their schooling and not of nature. This matters to her larger argument because it turns education from a favour into a remedy and makes those who resist it responsible for the dependence they say they find in women. The imperative “strengthen” also addresses the reader as someone with the power to act.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Embeds the quotation accurately in the writer’s own sentence. |
| 1 | Explains the cause and the effect. |
| 1 | Explains the significance for the larger argument. |
| 1 | Comments on a specific word (for example “strengthen” or “blind”). |
| 1 | Avoids simply repeating the claim. |
Question 3 (constructed response · 3.2)
Use these invented sources.
Source A (national survey). 64 percent of teenagers said they felt more anxious on days when their phone battery was low.
Source B (school report). A school that held phone-free lunchtimes for a term recorded a 12 percent rise in pupils joining clubs.
Source C (head teacher’s letter). Phone bans are hard to enforce and create arguments at the gate.
Prompt: “Should schools restrict phone use?” Write a thesis and a paragraph of four to five sentences that synthesises all three sources, cites them by letter, and acknowledges the counterargument.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. Thesis: Schools should restrict phone use at lunchtimes, because the evidence suggests it helps pupils, as long as the restrictions are practical to enforce. Paragraph: Teenagers’ reliance on phones appears to carry an emotional cost, with 64 percent reporting more anxiety when their battery was low (Source A). A school that removed phones at lunchtimes saw a 12 percent rise in pupils joining clubs (Source B), which suggests that time away from screens opens room for other activities. The head teacher’s warning that bans create arguments at the gate (Source C) is a genuine difficulty, but it concerns how to enforce the rule and not whether the rule has benefits. A restriction limited to lunchtimes would answer both: it keeps the benefit and reduces the daily conflicts that a full ban might cause.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Thesis takes a position and qualifies it. |
| 1 | All three sources cited accurately. |
| 1 | Sources are grouped by idea and put in conversation. |
| 1 | Counterargument (Source C) acknowledged and answered. |
| 1 | Commentary links sources to the thesis. |
Question 4 (multiple choice · 3.5, 3.4)
A speaker says: “Councillor Okoye argues that the new tram line would cut congestion, but she doesn’t even have a driving licence, so her view is worthless.” Which statement best explains why the reasoning is flawed?
- (A) It cites too many statistics
- (B) It attacks the speaker’s circumstances and does not address the claim about congestion
- (C) It is a well-supported cause-effect argument
- (D) It defines a term
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). This is an ad hominem: whether she has a licence does not show whether the tram line would cut congestion. The other options do not describe the sentence.
- (A) is wrong: no statistics are cited.
- (C) is wrong: it supports nothing; it dismisses a person.
- (D) is wrong: no term is defined.
Question 5 (constructed response · 3.6)
Name the dominant method of development in each passage and cite a signal. Then say which method you would use first in an essay arguing that a town should keep its market, for an audience of sceptical councillors, and why.
(i) “Whereas the market sells local bread at £1.80, the supermarket’s is £2.40.” (ii) “When the market closed, the baker lost his pitch, so he closed his shop, and the street lost its morning custom.” (iii) “The stalls smell of coffee and wet canvas, and on a Saturday you cannot move for prams.”
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (i) Comparison-contrast: “Whereas” and two prices side by side. (ii) Cause-effect: “When… so… and” present a chain of consequences. (iii) Description: sensory details (coffee, wet canvas, prams). For sceptical councillors I would begin with cause-effect (or comparison-contrast with other towns), because it answers their likely question about what the market is worth and what its closure would cost; description or a short narrative would come later to give the case a human face.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | (i) correctly identified with a signal. |
| 1 | (ii) correctly identified with a signal. |
| 1 | (iii) correctly identified with a signal. |
| 1 | Chooses a method for the opening that suits sceptical councillors. |
| 1 | Gives a reason linked to the audience. |
Accept comparison-contrast or cause-effect as an opening if justified.
Question 6 (constructed response · 3.7, 3.5)
(a) Write a four-sentence narrative paragraph (details, sequence, reflection) that supports the claim “A single act of encouragement can change how a person sees their own ability.” (b) Then, in two sentences, explain why one story cannot prove the claim for everyone, and what additional evidence would help.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (a) “In Year 8 I handed in a poem I thought was embarrassing, and Mr Alvarez wrote one line at the bottom: ‘Read this one aloud in assembly.’ I did, with shaking hands, and a girl I hardly knew came up afterwards and asked for a copy. I have written something most weeks since. That one sentence taught me that people often take their measure of themselves from the first adult who tells them the truth about what they can do.” (b) One story shows what happened to one person and may not be typical, so it cannot prove a general claim. A survey of many people about what encouraged them, or a study of pupils who received encouragement, would show whether the pattern is widespread.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Includes at least two concrete details and a clear sequence. |
| 1 | Includes a sentence of reflection linked to the claim. |
| 1 | Explains that one story is not enough for a general claim. |
| 1 | Names a type of additional evidence. |
| 1 | The writing is coherent and uses the first person or a named person. |
Accept any original, coherent narrative.
Question 7 (constructed response · 3.3, 3.4)
A student’s argument for a free school breakfast has these paragraph claims in the wrong order: (a) The council should therefore fund a breakfast club. (b) Some will say the cost is too high. (c) One in five pupils arrives without breakfast. (d) Hungry pupils lose concentration in the first lessons. (e) A breakfast club costs less than a single teaching assistant.
(i) Put them in a line of reasoning that ends with the recommendation, using each once. (ii) Write one bridge sentence that links two of the paragraphs. (iii) State the significance of paragraph (e) for the thesis.
Answer and explanation
Model answer. (i) (c), (d), (e), (b), (a): the problem, its consequence, the affordable remedy, the objection (which can be answered by the cost evidence), and the recommendation. An answer that places (b) before (e) so that cost is raised and then answered, giving (c), (d), (b), (e), (a), is also acceptable. (ii) “If hunger is already costing pupils their first lessons, the question is not whether to act but what the cheapest effective remedy would be.” (iii) Paragraph (e) matters because it shows that the remedy costs less than a single post, which removes the main objection and makes the recommendation reasonable.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (5 points)
| Points | What earns it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Places the problem and consequence before the remedy. |
| 1 | Places the objection and the answer before the recommendation. |
| 1 | Order ends with (a) and uses each claim once. |
| 1 | Bridge sentence links two paragraphs and shows direction. |
| 1 | Explains the significance of (e) for the thesis. |
After the review
Tick off the topic checklists for Unit 3. Units 4 to 9 continue the course: introductions and conclusions, coherence and style, and the full exam tasks.