Big Idea 3 is focused on understanding 🤔 the complexity of an issue by looking at the multiple view points 👀 that people have on it. Understandably, this Big Idea may seems smaller compared to something like BI 2, however, BI 3 does hold an important place in Seminar.

One of the things that will turn a just okay argumentative paper into a great argumentative paper is how well you address the multiple perspectives and complexities of an issue.

Before we even jump into the Essential Questions, we need to figure out what perspective even means in the context of Seminar.

There are really two ways that you can think about perspective:

Quick Tip: When you go to write your IRR, make sure that you pick lenses that fit your research question. Don't feel like someone has to do a historical lens or has to do a political lens. Pick the ones that work best for your group!

🧐 The Essential Questions of Big Idea 3

Alright! Now that we have defined perspective, let's jump into the EQ's. 🤔

While it is your job to argue for one side over the other, you still need to address that other side and highlight why it's relevant. This Big Idea is all about building the skill set that will allow you to be successful when analyzing multiple perspectives.

First, let's look at the Essential Questions 🤔:

What patterns or trends can be identified among the arguments about the issue?

What are the implications and/or consequences of accepting or rejecting a particular argument?

How can I connect the multiple perspectives? What other issues, questions, or topics do they relate to?

How can I explain contradictions within or between arguments?

From whose perspective is this information being presented, and how does that affect my evaluation?

Quick Tip: You will be analyzing perspective in everything that you do for Seminar. The way that you look at perspective might be different depending on what you're doing, but you should always be thinking about perspective.

👀 Using the Essential Questions to Understand Perspective

Unlike the other Big Idea EQs where you want consider them but not actively use them, you really want to use these EQs as a guide to developing proper perspective. Think of them almost like steps that you need to take when approaching an argument or research question.

Let's use an example here and look at how the EQ's can help us better understand perspective. I'm going to give a fairly generic research question 🤔 and show how we would work through it using the EQs.

Evaluating perspectives is needed to be successful on all parts of the Performance Tasks and Exam. We'll be looking at the rubrics and show exactly how you'll be using it.

Understanding the perspective of an argument before you start digging into research will help inform how you talk about it and how you view it.

As you write, make sure that you're including evidence from multiple perspectives and talking about how they interact together. And don't forget, you should include perspectives that disagree with you! Use them to explain why your argument is the strongest.

AP Seminar Performance Task and Presentation

AP Seminar Exam

AP Seminar Exam Prep 2020 | Reviews + Free Study Help | Fiveable

AP Seminar

Big Idea 1: Question and Explore 

Big Idea 2: Understand and Analyze 