SUGGESTED RESPONSES AP SEMINAR. Section I Part A

Transcription

1 SUGGESTED RESPONSES AP Seminar End- of- Course Exam Weight: 40% of the AP Seminar Score AP SEMINAR Section I Part A Directions: Read the passage below and then respond to the following three questions. 1. Identify the author s argument, main idea, or thesis. 2. Explain the author s line of reasoning by identifying the claims used to build the argument and the connections between them. 3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the evidence the author uses to support the claims made in the argument. Adapted from How Diet Soda Makes You Fat, and Other Food and Diet Industry Secrets By practicing medical specialist, Dr. Mark Hyman An article in the Huffington Post s Healthy Living online segment, April What s the main argument? Hyman s main argument is that a combination of the food industry s propaganda and the addictive nature of sugar is unfairly manipulating us, which in turn is harming our health. He concludes that if we re going to stop obesity, we need to reset our taste buds and brain chemistry by abandoning unprocessed food such as the artificial sweeteners found in diet soda.

2 2. How the author goes about arguing this main argument, and how the points raised are connected To develop his argument, the author uses a series of counterarguments to disprove what the industry claims to be true about their product s impact on our health. First, he opens by placing immediate blame on the food and diet industry, and calls their efforts to sell us products propaganda, a word that contains a clear stigma, so this is an attempt to persuade the reader by evoking our emotions. He then moves into Coca Cola s claim that they re fighting obesity by lowering the sales of sugar drinks in schools while promoting low/no calorie drinks as part of their line of sales; but Hyman immediately refutes this propoganda by offering several studies which conclude that drinking these low calorie drinks is more harmful than the sugar-sweetened drinks they re cutting back on. He continues to build this argument by offering several studies, one longterm study on women, and another study conducted on rats, in which he concludes that artificial sweeteners are, in fact, addictive, cause health issues, and lead to weight gain after all. Next, Hyman counters the food industry s claim that exercise is essential to good health despite processed foods intake, by offering some plausible numbers of how much exercise it would take to ward off this kind of diet. And finally, he argues against the food industry s claim that moderation is key by offering evidence to prove that the artificial combinations of sugar, fat and salt in processed and junk foods is food terrorism since it hijacks our brain chemistry and taste buds. He provides another animal study to support this before drawing his ultimate conclusion that we need to avoid processed foods if we re going to lead healthier lives.

3 3. How strong is the Evidence? Study on diet drinks STRENGTHS OF EVIDENCE credibility of experiment - possible authority as reported in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition breadth of support claimed supported by many other studies wide timescale - 14yr period of the study large sample size - 66,118 All give support to the author s claim that diet drinks lead to weight gain and addiction. Evidence on exercise plausible figures given seem to be reasonable This supports the author s claim that exercise cannot counter bad diet. Research study on addiction Relevant example the experiment used two potentially addictive substances This supports the author s claim about the addictive qualities of sweeteners Study on diet drinks WEAKNESSES OF EVIDENCE assertion - other supporting studies not cited generalisation -questionable transferability of: age, of experiment results from adults to children gender, of experiment results from females to males species, of experiment results from rats to humans culture, of experiment results from American females (if area published study reflected participants) to less urbanised areas selectivity (could be expressed as limited options): diet drinks limited to those that use sweeteners other diet drinks reducing sugar content rather than replacing it with sweeteners wouldn t be addictive or sweeter. All weaken the support for the author s claim that diet drinks lead to weight gain and addiction. Evidence on exercise assertion source of evidence is not cited selectivity (could be expressed as limited options) exercise limited to walking - other exercise might be more effective in burning off bad diet.

4 These weaken the support for the author s claim that exercise cannot counter bad diet. Research study on addiction assertion source of study is not cited generalisation - questionable species transferability - of experiment results from rats to humans emotive language the word culprit could evoke fear rather than reason to support the claim. The use of the emotive term food terrorism may distract from the quality of evidence provided elsewhere. conflation the experiment used sweeteners but the claim is about the addictiveness of sugar These weaken the support for the author s claim about the addictive qualities of sweeteners.

5 Community HS, PBCSD Boca Raton