Inside This Unit: The Full Breakdown
Unit 2 (Understand & Analyze) covers identifying an author’s argument, claims, evidence, and line of reasoning, and evaluating credibility, relevance, bias, and logical fallacies.
Why it matters
You cannot build a defensible argument on weak sources — analyzing and evaluating sources is central to every AP Seminar task.
Key concepts
- An argument is a claim supported by reasons and evidence.
- Evaluate sources for credibility, relevance, and bias.
- Logical fallacies (ad hominem, straw man) weaken arguments.
Understand & Analyze Arguments
Practice tracing a source’s line of reasoning, distinguishing main claims from sub-claims, judging credibility and relevance, surfacing assumptions, and spotting fallacies. Use corroboration to test reliability.
AP exam tip
Separate credibility from relevance — a trustworthy source can still be off-topic for your question.
Connections to other units
- Unit 1: You analyze the sources exploration surfaced.
- Unit 3: Analysis feeds comparison and synthesis.
