Ap23 Apc Seminar pt2

2023
AP Seminar
®
Performance Task 2
Sample Student Responses
and Scoring Commentary
Inside:
Individual Written Argument

R Scoring Guidelines
R Student Samples
R Scoring Commentary
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AP Seminar 2023 Scoring Guidelines
Individual Written Argument (IWA) 48 points
General Scoring Notes

When applying the rubric for each individual row, you should award the score for that row based solely upon the criteria indicated for that row,
according to the preponderance of evidence.
0 (Zero) Scores
• A score of 0 is assigned to a single row of the rubric when the response displays a below-minimum level of quality as identified in that row of the
rubric.
• Scores of 0 are assigned to all rows of the rubric when the response is off-topic; a repetition of a prompt; entirely crossed-out; a drawing or
other markings; or a response in a language other than English.
Off-Topic Decision:
For the purpose of the IWA, if the response is not in any way related to a theme connecting at least two of the stimulus materials it will be counted
as off-topic and will receive a score of 0.
• Considering the student-oriented scoring approach of the College Board, readers should reward the student who derives their ideas from at least
two of the stimulus materials, even if they wandered away from them as they pursued their topic.
• If you can infer any connection to a theme derived from two or more stimulus materials, the response should be scored. A failure to adequately
incorporate the stimulus materials falls under rubric row 1, not here.
A READER SHOULD NEVER SCORE A PAPER AS OFF-TOPIC. INSTEAD, DEFER THE RESPONSE TO YOUR TABLE LEADER.
NR (No Response)
A score of NR is assigned to responses that are blank.
© 2023 College Board

Individual Written Argument (IWA) 48 points
Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
Row 1 0 points 5 points
The response does not incorporate any of the stimulus material, or, at most, it The response demonstrates the relevance of at least one of the stimulus
Understand is mentioned in only one sentence. materials to the argument by integrating it as part of the response. (For example,
and Analyze OR as providing relevant context for the research question, or as evidence to support
Context The response includes a discussion of at least one of the stimulus materials; relevant claims.)
however, it does not contribute to the argument.
(0 or 5 points)
Decision Rules and Scoring Notes
Typical responses that earn 0 points include a reference to the stimulus Typical responses that earn 5 points include a reference to the stimulus material
material that: that:
• Is tangential. • Reflects an accurate understanding of the source and demonstrates an
• May misrepresent what the sources are discussing/arguing or may use the understanding of its context (e.g., date, region, topic).
source in such a way that ignores its context. AND
• Presents an essential and authentic reference to the source, which if deleted,
• Is only used for a definition or facts that could be obtained from other,
more relevant sources. would change or weaken the argument.
• Is no more than a jumping-off point for the student’s argument, no more
than a perfunctory mention.
• Could be deleted with little to no effect on the response.
Additional Notes
• References to stimulus materials may be included multiple times in the response; only one successful integration of stimulus material is required to earn points.

Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
Row 2 0 points 5 points
The response either provides no context. The response explains the significance or importance of the research question
Understand OR by situating it within a larger context.
and Analyze
The response makes simplistic references to or general statements about the
Context
context of the research question.
(0 or 5 points) Decision Rules and Scoring Notes
Typical responses that earn 0 points: Typical responses that earn 5 points:
• Provide unsubstantiated assertions without explanations (e.g., “this is • Provide specific and relevant details (i.e., what, who, when, where) for all
important”). elements of the research question and/or argument.
• May provide contextual details, but they are tangential to the research AND
question and/or argument • Convey a sense of urgency or establish the importance of the research
• Provide overly broad, generalized statements about context. question and/or argument.
• Provide context for only part of the question or argument.
Additional Notes
• Context is usually found in the first few paragraphs.

Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
Row 3 0 points 6 points 9 points
The response provides only a single The response describes multiple perspectives and The response evaluates multiple perspectives (and
Understand perspective. identifies some relevant similarities or differences synthesizes them) by drawing relevant connections
and Analyze OR between them. between them, considering objections, implications, and
Perspective limitations.
The response identifies and offers opinions or
unsubstantiated statements about different
(0, 6, or 9
perspectives that may be overly simplified.
points)
Typical responses that earn 0 points: Typical responses that earn 6 points: Typical responses that earn 9 points:
• Provide only one perspective. • Make general comparisons between perspectives • Elaborate on the connections among different
• May use a lens or lenses that all work to describing only basic agreement or disagreement. perspectives.
convey the same point of view. • Explain that disagreement/agreement exists, but • Use the details from different sources or
• Convey alternative perspectives as they do not explain how by clarifying the points on perspectives to demonstrate specific agreement or
personal opinions or assertions without which they agree or disagree. disagreement among perspectives (i.e., evaluate
evidence (it is unclear whether or not comparative strengths and weaknesses of different
they are from sources because of vague perspectives by placing them in dialogue).
or missing attribution).
• Provide perspectives that are isolated
from each other without comparison.
• Provide perspectives that are
oversimplified by treating many voices,
stakeholders, or stances as one.
Additional Notes
• A lens is a filter through which an issue or topic is considered or examined.
• A perspective is “a point of view conveyed through an argument.” (This means the source’s argument). Facts, topics, and general stakeholder points of view
are not perspectives.

Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
The response provides only unsubstantiated The argument presents a claim with some flaws in The response is a clear and convincing argument.
Establish opinions or claims. reasoning.
Argument OR The response is logically organized and well-reasoned
The response summarizes information (no The response is logically organized, but the reasoning by connecting claims and evidence, leading to a
(0, 8, or 12 may be faulty or underdeveloped
argument). The response employs inadequate plausible, well-aligned conclusion.
points) OR
reasoning due to minimal connections
between claims and evidence. The response may be well-reasoned but illogical in its
organization. The conclusion may be only partially
related to the research question or thesis.

• Base the argument on opinion(s). • Organize the argument well OR link evidence and • Organize information in a way that is often
• Seek to explain a topic, rather than take a claims well in discrete sections, but do not do both. signposted or explicit.
position (e.g., report, summary, chronicle, In other words, the response may fail to explain how • Provide commentary that explains fully how
etc.). evidence supports a claim—i.e., it lacks commentary- evidence supports claims (i.e., the commentary
-OR the overall organization of the response is will engage with the content of the evidence to
• Provide a contrived solution to a non-
difficult to follow, even though it has done an draw conclusions).
existent problem or completely lack a
adequate job of commenting on the evidence.
conclusion. • Provide an argument that is driven by student
• Provide evidence that often drives the argument, voice (commentary).
• Provide an argument that is very difficult
rather than contributing to the response’s argument.
to discern, that contradicts itself, or is • Integrate alternate views, perhaps by engaging
invalid. • Provide a conclusion/resolution that lacks either with counterclaims or using them to demonstrate
enough detail to assess plausibility or is not fully a nuanced understanding.
aligned with the research question.
• Provide a solution/conclusion that is fully aligned
with the research question.
• Present enough detail to assess the plausibility of
the conclusion/solution (perhaps with an
assessment of limitations and implications).
Additional Notes

Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
Any evidence presented in the response is The response includes mostly relevant and credible The response includes relevant, credible and sufficient
Select and Use predominantly irrelevant and/or lacks evidence. evidence to support its argument.
Evidence credibility.
(0, 6, or 9
points) Decision Rules and Scoring Notes
• Include many sources that are not • Draw from a variety of sources that are relevant to • Provide evidence that fully supports claims.
credible for the context in which they are the topic and credible for the context in most • Effectively connect evidence to the argument, even if
used. cases, but those sources are primarily non- the relevance of the evidence is not initially
• Include no well-vetted sources (i.e., scholarly. apparent.
scholarly, peer-reviewed, credentialed • Include many sources that are referenced rather • Provide purposeful analysis and evaluation of
authors, independently verified, or from than explained. evidence used (i.e., goes beyond mere citation or
government or other reputable reference).
• Provide evidence that does not fully support
organizations) beyond the stimulus claims (e.g., there are some gaps and trivial
materials. • Make purposeful use of relevant evidence from a
selections). variety of scholarly work (e.g., peer-reviewed,
• May include a well-vetted source that is
not used effectively (e.g., trivial selection, • May cite several scholarly works, but select credentialed authors, independently verified,
excerpts that only convey general or simplistic primary sources, etc.).
not aligned with claim, misrepresented).
ideas OR include at least one piece of scholarly
work that is used effectively.
Additional Notes
• Review the Bibliography or Works Cited.
• Review individual instances of selected evidence throughout (commentary about the evidence).
• General reference guides such as encyclopedias and dictionaries do not fulfill the requirement for a well-vetted source.

Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
The response is missing a bibliography/works The response attributes or cites sources used through The response attributes, accurately cites and integrates
Apply cited OR the response is largely missing in-text the use of in-text citations or footnotes, but not the sources used through the use of in-text citations or
Conventions citations/ footnotes. always accurately. The bibliography or works cited footnotes. The bibliography or works cited accurately
references sources using a generally consistent style references sources using a consistent style.
(0, 3, or 5 with some errors.
points)
• Include internal citations, but no • Provide some uniformity in citation style. • Contain few flaws.
bibliography (or vice versa). • Include unclear references or errors in citations, • Provide consistent evidence of linking internal
• Provide little or no evidence of successful (e.g., citations with missing elements or essential citations to bibliographic references.
linking of in-text citations to bibliographic elements that must be guessed from a url). • Include consistent and clear attributive phrasing
references (e.g., in-text references are to • Provide some successful linking of citations to and/or in-text parenthetical citations.
titles but bibliographic references are bibliographic references.
listed by author; titles are different in the • Provide some successful attributive phrasing Note: The response cannot score 5 points if key
text and in the works cited). and/or in-text parenthetical citations. components of citations (i.e., author/organization, title,
publication, date) are consistently missing.
Additional Notes
• In AP Seminar, there is no requirement for using a particular style sheet; however, responses must use a style that is consistent and complete.
• Check the bibliography for consistency in style and inclusion of fundamental elements.
• Check for clarity of in-text citations.
• Check to make sure all in-text citations match the bibliography (without extensive search).

Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
The response has many grammatical flaws, is The response is mostly clear but may contain some The response creates variety, emphasis, and
Apply difficult to understand, or is written in a style flaws in grammar or a few instances of a style interest to the reader through the use of
Conventions inappropriate for an academic audience. inappropriate for an academic audience. effective sentences and precision of word
choice. The written style is consistently
(0, 2, or 3 appropriate for an academic audience, although
points) the response may have a few errors in grammar
and style.
• Contain multiple grammatical errors that • Contain some instances of errors that • Contain few flaws.
make reading difficult. occasionally make reading difficult. • Use clear prose that maintains an academic or
• Use an overall style that is colloquial or in • Lapse into colloquial language. scholarly tone.
other ways not appropriate for an academic • Demonstrate imprecise word choice. • Use words and syntax to enhance communication
paper. of complex ideas throughout.
• Provide too few sentences to evaluate or
the student’s own words are
indistinguishable from paraphrases of
sources.
Additional Notes
• Readers should focus on the sentences written by the student, not those quoted or derived from sources.

AP® Seminar 2023 Scoring Guidelines Version 1.0
Oral Defense (OD)
Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
Row 1 0 points 2 points 4 points 6 points
Does not meet the criteria for The oral defense addresses the The oral defense responds to the The oral defense articulates a detailed
Reflect one point. question in a way that is simplistic or question asked and provides some response to the question posed supported
unsubstantiated OR describes a process evidence that may be general rather by relevant and specific evidence.
(0, 2, 4, or 6 that does not answer the question. than specific about the research process.
points)
Typical responses that earn 0 Typical responses that earn 2 points Typical responses that earn 4 points: Typical responses that earn 6 points:
points: • Do not answer the question asked. • At least partially address the • Fully answer the question asked.
• Contradict or do not align with the question asked. • Provide relevant and specific details in
argument presented. • Provide some evidence relating to the context of the question (provide
• Are so general as could be about the particular project/research but the why, or how, or rationale with
any project/essay or are so vague lack specific examples. specific instances).
as to be meaningless. • Provide the required information but
• Are nonsensical or are unrelated to without the why, how or rationale
the research. (the convincing details).
• Are an exact restatement of what
was said in the presentation
(nothing is added).
Additional Notes

AP® Seminar 2023 Scoring Guidelines Version 1.0
Reporting
Scoring Criteria
Category
Row 2 0 points 2 points 4 points 6 points
Does not meet the criteria for The oral defense addresses the The oral defense responds to the The oral defense articulates a detailed
Establish one point. question in a way that is simplistic or question asked and provides some response to the question posed supported
Argument unsubstantiated OR describes a process evidence that may be general rather by relevant and specific evidence.
that does not answer the question. than specific about the research process.
(0, 2, 4, or 6
points)
Typical responses that earn 0 Typical responses that earn 2 points Typical responses that earn 4 points: Typical responses that earn 6 points:
points: • Do not answer the question asked. • At least partially addresses the • Fully answer the question asked.
• Contradict or do not align with the question asked. • Provide relevant and specific details in
argument presented. • Provide some evidence relating to the context of the question (provide
• Are so general as could be about the particular project/research but the why, or how, or rationale with
any project/essay or are so vague lack specific examples. specific instances).
as to be meaningless. • Provide the required information but
• Are nonsensical or are unrelated to without the why, how or rationale
the research. (the convincing details).
• Are an exact restatement of what
was said in the presentation
(nothing is added).
Additional Notes

PT2-IWA A 1 of 12
1
Breaking Car Dependency: An Evaluation of Mass Passenger and Freight Transportations
Effectiveness in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
AP Seminar
May 1st, 2023
Word Count: 2173

PT2-IWA A 2 of 12
2
According to a study authored by Professor James Hansen of Columbia University's
Earth Institute, and additional collaborators, published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, the average global surface temperature of the Earth has risen by
approximately 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade over the past thirty years (Hansen et al. 1). This
phenomenon is indicative of the broader impacts of global anthropogenic climate change as a
consequence of industrialization as greenhouse gas emissions have subsequently and
substantially increased. Such emissions then produce adverse climate effects as the United
Nations Climate Reports finds, “As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the
sun’s heat…Warmer temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the
usual balance of nature,”(Causes and Effects of Climate Change 1). This disruptive and abjectly
harmful effect thus necessitates a significant response, especially within highly industrialized
nations such as the United States. Within U.S. cities the impacts of climate change are already
far-reaching as cities often serve as harbingers for the future effects of a warming climate, as Eric
Bender, former editor of the MIT Technology Review, writes in an article published in Knowable
Magazine, “Cities are kind of the key for understanding responses to global climate
change…This city is giving you the global climate warming that we would expect by 2050 or
2070 or 2100,” (Bender 2). Therefore, innovative solutions to the climate emergency fast
approaching the United States will be the cornerstone of humanity's adaptation and ability to
resist the threats of a changing climate. Moreover, within the United States explicitly, this burden
largely falls upon the transportation sector as it has consistently shown to be the highest emitting
segment of the economy. The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Inventory of
U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks corroborates this, noting, “Transportation activities
accounted for 38.6 percent of U.S. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in 2021,”
PT2-IWA A 3 of 12
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(Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gases 43). Without action within this sector, the United States
will continue to face the detrimental effects of a warming climate, illustrating the necessity for
the implementation of adaptive technologies as a measure to prevent disaster. As a potential
solution to this complication stands the technologies of high-speed rail and electrified urban
buses. Each of these innovations in transportation has priorly seen prominence within both Asian
and European nations, but have thus remained unprecedented on a large scale within the United
States. Moreover, to reduce individual passenger travel, freight transportation emissions, and the
United States' reliance upon fossil fuels, the most optimal solution is a modal shift in passenger
and freight transportation to high-speed rail as well as an accompanying electrification of urban
commuter buses.
The most devastating subdivision of transportation in terms of raw greenhouse gas
emissions is derived from individual passenger vehicles. The Congressional Budget Office of the
United States corroborates this notion, writing that 58% of all carbon dioxide emissions in 2019
were generated solely by individual personal vehicles (Shirley and Gecan 15). Offering
governmental statistical analysis, this data reveals the severe detriment that car dependency
within America has generated. Additionally, this complication created by individual personal
vehicles exists as a consequence of the automobile industry as a whole, rather than specific
products or models, as Dr. Giulio Mattioli, a research fellow at the Department of Transportation
Planning of the University of Dortmund Germany, and colleagues confirmed in an article
published within Energy Research and Social Science, noting how the automobile industry is
incentivized to lobby to prevent legislation against environmental issues, thus making the current
industry unsustainable (Mattioli et al. 5). Offering a purely academic analysis, the perspective
proposed by Mattioli and his fellow researchers clearly outlines that the current state of
PT2-IWA A 4 of 12
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automobile-centric development continues to perpetrate environmental injustice, thus requiring
an adaptive modal shift towards more sustainable rail development. High-speed rail as a solution
to this complication created by automobiles has proven to be highly effective in achieving
greenhouse gas emission reductions by drawing substantial traffic away from individual vehicles.
This is verified by a study conducted by Meiyu Liu of Tsinghua University and additional
collaborators published within Public Library of Science One which noted, “HSR will reduce
carbon emissions by substituting highway passenger traffic, but the more significant the carbon
reduction effect of HSR is in cities with a higher volume of highway passenger traffic,” (M. Liu
et al. 12). The conclusions drawn from the academic perspective and literature of this study thus
illustrate the immense impact high-speed rail could have upon American cities as rail lines
siphon passengers away from personal vehicles. The findings established by Meiyu and her
colleagues are further supported by an article authored by Senior Policy Fellow Richard Nunno
of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute that reports that California’s current attempts at
constructing a high-speed rail line could reduce vehicles miles traveled by ten million miles per
day upon completion, saving approximately four-hundred billion vehicles miles over a fifty-eight
year period (Nunno). Both authors act in conjunction with one another's perspective to unveil the
degree to which high-speed rail would be exceptionally beneficial to the United States
transportation system. Furthermore, by investing in such transportation technologies, the United
States would be propelling its capability to reduce transportation emissions as reduced personal
vehicle travel will consequently decrease the most significant portion of transportation
emissions. An article authored by Yatang Lin, an assistant professor of Economics at Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology, and additional associates and published in Nature notes
that the construction of high-speed rail lines in China led to an annual reduction of about 11.183
PT2-IWA A 5 of 12
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million tons of carbon dioxide with great potential for significantly greater reductions provided
greener energy sources than those most prominently used in China (Lin et al. 1). Moreover, Lin
and her colleagues' findings illustrate the extent to which high-speed rail could impactfully
reduce the United States quantity of greenhouse gas emissions generated by transportation.
Furthermore, high-speed rail for passenger transportation could serve as a propellant to human
resistance against climate change while simultaneously improving America's ability to adapt
transportation modes to a heating globe.
Subsequent to the environmental degradation created by passenger transportation therein
lies the emissions created through freight transportation in the United States. Freight in the
United States is primarily transported via commercial trucking, as economist Andrew Hait and
supervisory statistician Lynda Lee, both of the American Census Bureau, write in a census
article, “Trucks transported 71.6%...of all goods shipped in the United States in 2017,” (Hait and
Lee). Both authors present a governmental and economic perspective on the issue of freight
transportation within the United States, and the data they unveil illustrates the extent to which
commercial trucking dominates the freight sector. Furthermore, this monopoly over the mode of
freight transit the trucking industry holds is extensively detrimental to the state of climate change
in America. Commercial trucking contributes immense quantities of carbon dioxide, as was
noted by Rui Jiang, a researcher at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, and several
colleagues in a study published in the International Journal of Environmental and Public Health
Research which found, “Freight transport…contribute[s] an average of…27.5% to total road
transport CO2 emissions,” (Jiang et al. 7) The data presented via Jiang and their colleagues thus
reveals how the data detailed by Hait and Lee causes excessive greenhouse gas emissions,
further indicating the need for a modal shift in freight transportation. High-speed rail has
PT2-IWA A 6 of 12
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additionally illustrated significant plausibility as both a reprieve to the trucking industry's
dominance of freight transit, but also as a solution to its immense carbon footprint. Rail
transportation of freight has previously been noted to be exceptionally beneficial in terms of
reducing carbon emissions, as was noted by Dr. Sakirdat Kaewunruen of the University of
Birmingham’s Department of Civil Engineering and several other contributors in a study
published in Frontiers In Built Environment which found, “Each tonne of freight moved by rail
reduces carbon emissions by 76% in comparison with road transport,” (Liu et al. 12). Moreover,
the academic perspective offered by the data represented in this study further indicates the
superlative environmental benefits high-speed rail would generate. Moreover, a further pivot
towards high-speed rail development rather than trucking infrastructure would serve to propel the
United States' ability to plausibly reduce its transportation greenhouse gas emissions. However,
the notion that high-speed rail and other advanced technological solutions to climate change are
the optimal solutions to these complications is heavily negated by The University of Colombia’s
Julia Watson, a leading expert in the field of indigenous nature-based technologies. In Watson’s
2020 Ted talk she notes how seemingly beneficial high-tech solutions to the issues generated by
climate change can often be more detrimental than more natural sustainable practices (Watson).
Therefore, the perspective offered by Watson directly contradicts that of Liu and represents a
potential complication high-speed rail may generate in preventing human adaptation to the rising
climate emergency. However, this notion is again directly contradicted by Professor of data
engineering Mathias Boehm of the Berlin Institute of Technology and several colleagues in a
study published in the European Transport Research Review which found that the replacement of
road transportation with a predominantly high-speed rail network of cargo transit could reduce
carbon emissions by seventy-nine percent (Boehm et al. 8). Moreover, the angle offered by this
PT2-IWA A 7 of 12
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data directly coordinates with that offered by Liu and their colleagues, revealing how a genuine
modal transition towards greater application of high-speed rail technologies for freight transport
would reprieve freight transportation emissions. Additionally, both studies unveil how
high-speed rail could thus bolster American cities' ability to combat the growing effects of
climate change, thus indicating its plausibility as an adaptive technological solution.
Accompanying the further promotion of high-speed rail as a technical solution to the
complications of climate change lies a pivot towards electrified urban buses as a further measure
to incentivize greener inner-city public transportation. Under the status quo, non-electric urban
buses not only stand as substantial polluters within inner-city traffic but also sabotage ambient
air quality with further detrimental effects on local environments. Associate Professor of public
health at Drexel University Gina Lovasi and additional collaborators confirm this notion within a
study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology which
purported, “emissions from diesel buses themselves can be a source of air pollution, including
nitrogen oxides and black carbon,” (Lovasi et al. 1). Through the simultaneously medical and
academic perspective offered by Lovasi and her colleagues, this study illustrates the necessity for
improvements within current public transportation modes to best combat pollutants and harmful
transportation emissions. Through the electrification of urban bus fleets, the United States would
be further propelling the resilience of American cities to the threats posed by climate change, as
electric buses generally result in less fuel consumption, and thus fewer emissions. An article
published in Transport Reviews Journal and authored by Dr. Katerina Deliali of the Department
of Transportation Planning and Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, and
several additional collaborators corroborates this assertion, arguing that battery electric urban
buses always exhibited a fuel efficiency that was three times greater than that of diesel buses
PT2-IWA A 8 of 12
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while additionally maintaining zero tailpipe emissions (Deliali et al. 22). Deliali and her
co-authors' extensive experience explicitly within the field of transportation thus reveals the
genuinely positive effects electrification of urban buses could hold over United States
transportation networks. Moreover, the use of such adaptive technologies will require
significantly less energy generation than conventional buses, thus resulting in fewer carbon
emissions as a byproduct of the United States’s predominantly fossil fuel-based energy grids.
This phenomenon was reported by Dr. Adrian Todorut of the Technical University of
Cluj-Napoca and two colleagues in a study published in the Polish Journal of Environmental
Studies which noted, “The emission of CO2 generated by the production of electric power
consumed by electric buses is 2.605 times lower than that generated by diesel buses,” (Todorut et
al. 11). Todorut and his collaborators academic perspective thus coordinates with that offered by
Deliali to reveal the strong improvements in fuel efficiency that electric buses create. This is
indicative of the fact that electric buses could serve a strong role as a remedy for the
consequences of climate change within urban areas in conjunction with high-speed rail
technologies.
The effects of anthropogenic climate change are swiftly approaching, marking the
necessity for immediate action against its chief causes. Within the United States, the
transportation sector underpins the United States' failures to adequately combat this growing
threat. Thus, through the implementation of highly adaptive technologies such as high-speed rail
for both passenger and freight transportation as well as electrified urban buses for inner-city
transit, the United States would be propagating strengthened transportation networks that can
effectively reduce the immense burden of transportation emissions within America. Moreover,
by propelling and incentivizing such modes of transportation, the United States would be acting
PT2-IWA A 9 of 12
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in conjunction with much of the rest of the world in a coalition against the looming consequences
of mass and uninhibited industrialization.

PT2-IWA A 10 of 12
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Works Cited
Bender, Eric. “Urban Evolution: How Species Adapt to Survive in Cities.” Knowable Magazine,
2022, https://doi.org10.1146/knowable-031822-1. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Boehm, Mathias et al. “The Potential of High-Speed Rail Freight in Europe: How Is a Modal
Shift from Road to Rail Possible for Low-Density High Value Cargo?” European
Transport Research Review, vol. 13, no. 1, 2021,
https://doi.org10.1186/s12544-020-00453-3. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Deliali, Aikaterini et al. “Transitioning to Zero-Emission Bus Fleets: State of Practice of
Implementations in the United States.” Transport Reviews, vol. 41, no. 2, 2021, pp.
164–191, https://doi.org10.1080/01441647.2020.1800132. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Hait, Andrew and Lynda Lee. “Most Goods Americans Use in Their Daily Lives Are
Transported and Delivered by Truck.” Census.gov, 2021,
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/02/what-is-in-that-truck-i-just-passed-on-the
-highway.html. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Hansen, James et al. “Global Temperature Change.” Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 103, no. 39, 2006, pp. 14288–14293,
https://doi.org10.1073/pnas.0606291103. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Jiang, Rui et al. “Driving Factors behind Energy-Related Carbon Emissions in the U.S. Road
Transport Sector: A Decomposition Analysis.” International Journal of Environmental
Research and Public Health, vol. 19, no. 4, 2022, p. 2321,
https://doi.org10.3390/ijerph19042321. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

PT2-IWA A 11 of 12
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Lin, Yatang et al. “Impact of High-Speed Rail on Road Traffic and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.”
Nature Climate Change, vol. 11, no. 11, 2021, pp. 952–957,
Liu, Meiyu et al. “Revealing the Transmission Mechanism and Spatial Spillover of Carbon
Emission Reduction Caused by High-Speed Rail Opening.” PloS One, vol. 17, no. 8,
2022, p. e0271585, https://doi.org10.1371/journal.pone.0271585. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Liu, Rucheng et al. “Sensitivity of a High-Speed Rail Development on Supply Chain and
Logistics via Air-Rail-Road Freight Transportation.” Frontiers in Built Environment, vol.
7, 2021, https://doi.org10.3389/fbuil.2021.685884. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Lovasi, Gina et al. “Clean Fleets, Different Streets: Evaluating the Effect of New York City’s
Clean Bus Program on Changes to Estimated Ambient Air Pollution.” Journal of
Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 2022,
Mattioli, Giulio et al. “The Political Economy of Car Dependence: A Systems of Provision
Approach.” Energy Research & Social Science, vol. 66, no. 101486, 2020, p. 101486,
https://doi.org10.1016/j.erss.2020.101486. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Nunno, Richard. “Fact Sheet | High Speed Rail Development Worldwide.” Environmental and
Energy Study Institute, 19 July 2018,
https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-high-speed-rail-development-worldwide.
Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

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Shirley, Chad and Ron Gecan. “Emissions of Carbon Dioxide in the Transportation Sector.”
Congressional Budget Office, 13 Dec. 2022, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58861.
Todoruț, Adrian et al. “Replacing Diesel Buses with Electric Buses for Sustainable Public
Transportation and Reduction of CO2 Emissions.” Polish Journal of Environmental
Studies, vol. 29, no. 5, 2020, pp. 3339–3351, https://doi.org10.15244/pjoes/112899.
United Nations. “Causes and Effects of Climate Change.”
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/causes-effects-climate-change. Accessed 9
Apr. 2023.
United States of America, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Atmospheric Protection.
“Draft Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.” Environmental
Protection Agency, 2023,
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xt.pdf. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Watson, Julia. “How to Build a Resilient Future Using Ancient Wisdom.” Ted.com, 11 Aug.
2020.
https://www.ted.com/talks/julia_watson_how_to_build_a_resilient_future_using_ancient
_wisdom. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

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Mental Health Issues in the United States Military
Word Count: 1,823

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Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of declining mental health in the United States military.
The proposed solution is to bring awareness to the topic and break the negative stigma around
getting help for your mental health in the military. These issues will be discussed through the
psychological effects of poor mental health because of serving in the military, the past political
solutions that have failed, and the possible economic solutions. The idea for this paper was
inspired by the given stimulus sources. Both “The Dark Side of Resilience” and “In Their Own
Words: resilience Among Haitian Survivors of the 2010 Earthquake” will be utilized. This paper
was formulated through a plethora of research, in an attempt to find a solution to the decrease in
mental state from serving in the military.

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Introduction
Mental illness is one of the most prevalent issues for people who serve in the military,
and more efficient ways to reduce these problems need to be put in place. With “nearly 1 in 4
active-duty members showing signs of a mental health condition,” there is a clear issue with how
the mental illnesses are being caught, and how they are being treated once found (NAMI, n.d.).
The stimulus material “In Their Own Words: Resilience Among Haitian Survivors of the 2010
Earthquake” inspired the thought process that led to the topic of bettering mental health care for
people in the military, since it explains trauma, and trauma is extremely common in the military.
The stimulus “The Dark Side of Resilience” further supported the topic by explaining how the
U.S. Marine Corps utilizes resilience in their training, and how it might be more harmful than
helpful. While there have been many efforts to lower the severity of mental illnesses through
programs, most have not been successful, since mental illness rates in the military are not
significantly decreasing. Mental illness needs to be caught and treated in the military quicker
and more efficiently.
Psychological Effects of the Military
Serving in the military is one of the harshest environments to work in and constantly be
surrounded by. Between the intense training programs and the dangerous deployments, being in
the military has mentally draining effects. Most mental issues in the military stem from trauma.
“Trauma comes from the Greek word for ‘wound.’ Trauma refers to either physical or to
psychological, life-threatening injury resulting from catastrophic personal, familial, or disaster
experiences, from which the individual or community cannot escape, but to which the reaction is
one of terror, helplessness, and a sense of being overwhelmed” (“In Their Own Words: resilience
Among Haitian Survivors of the 2010 Earthquake”). While serving in all branches of the military
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is challenging, the Army and the Marines have the most extreme conditions, causing them to also
face the most severe mental effects. In the Marine Corps, “service members may begin drinking
during active duty due to stress, lack of other activities to participate in, isolation, and as a way
to bond with other service members. However, this can become an unhealthy pattern that persists
even after active duty has been completed” (AAC, 2022). While trying to find a way to deal with
the conditions of the Marine Corps, the members drink, which in some cases leads to addiction,
one of the many psychological disorders that come from the military. Other most often seen
mental illnesses in the military are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and
anxiety. These also have negative effects on not only the person struggling with them, but their
friends and family as well. PTSD often stems from “traumatic events, such as military combat”,
especially when deployed or in active duty (NAMI, n.d.). This combat is inevitable when serving
in the military, but the symptoms from it are very serious and could harm the person diagnosed
with PTSD. “Some symptoms of PTSD include having nightmares or feeling like you are
reliving the event, avoiding situations that remind you of the event, being easily startled, and loss
of interest in activities,” which could make an uncomfortable life for anyone with PTSD (VA,
2007). This could result in lack of sleep because of nightmares, and constantly being on edge
from reminders of events in the past. PTSD also leads to depression and could worsen or bring
on new addictions, which deteriorates mental health.
Programs in Place to Treat Military Mental Illness
While there are many severe mental illnesses that result from being in the military,
programs have been established to bring awareness to and treat them. The most well-known of
the programs is the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or the VA. This is a government
program that provides not only mental health care, but educational and financial benefits too.
This program has many perks, such as providing access to “mental health services for
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posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychological effects of military sexual trauma (MST),
depression, grief, anxiety, and other needs” (VA, 2023). These programs come in many forms,
with counselling and therapy treatments, and both in person and online options. This diverse
range of options is an effort to expand their treatment options to as many people as possible, but
mental illness rates in the military are still not declining. Regarding the fact that “substance
abuse and mental health challenges are disproportionately common in the Marine Corps and
Army when compared to the other military services,” some programs were created to
accommodate to only certain branches of the military (Myers, 2022). For instance, the
Psychological Health Outreach program was created in order to help the Marines, since they
have such an overwhelming amount of mental illness compared to the other U.S. military
branches. They are “an all encompassing program dedicated to providing Reservists full access
to appropriate psychological health care services, increasing resiliency, and facilitating recovery,
which is essential to maintaining a ready military force” (U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve,
n.d.). This type of program is ideal, since they are only for one military branch, which allows
them to accommodate to the specific illnesses and situations that come with that specific branch.
All of their services are free and confidential, which is another thing that makes this style of
program so perfect to treat the illnesses, but like the VA, the Psychological Health Outreach
program requires the patient or their family members to reach out to the program and ask for
help. This often outweighs all of the positives that these programs have to offer, and discourages
people from getting help, since they are too scared to reach out themselves and ask for help,
which is why the mental illness rates are still so high in the U.S. military.
Social Issues with the Current Programs
Even though the current programs seem to be perfect to solve the problem of rising
mental illness rates in the military, they all have one thing in common: the patient must be the
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one to reach out to the programs. This is a major issue for many people, due to the social notions
surrounding reaching out for help. Many people do not want to be the ones to reach out since
there is such a negative stigma surrounding doing so, with a stigma being “a strong feeling of
disapproval that most people in a society have about something, especially when this is unfair”
(Cambridge Dictionary, 2023). Within the military, stigmas are stopping people from getting the
mental health care they need. “Military culture values teamwork, toughness, and self-reliance. In
some situations, these same values may serve to promote stigma. For example, military
personnel may be concerned that seeking care will hinder their effectiveness and possibly limit
their military career” (AAC,2022). Out of fear of these things actually happening, people serving
in the military choose not to get mental health help, even if they need it. This is the main reason
the current programs are failing. Not because they are not efficiently created and thought
through, but because people are too scared to reach out to get help.
Breaking the Stigma
With a stigma being something set into the minds of society, it would be extremely
difficult to change the way everyone views mental health issues in the military. However, some
of these stigmas are being put out from the military themselves, instead of society deciding this
as a whole. While trying to promote resilience in the military, a negative stigma surrounding
having mental health issues has been spread. “The United States Marine Corps uses the ‘pain is
just weakness leaving the body’ mantra as a part of their hardcore training program” (“The Dark
Side of Resilience”). If we start to change the way the military approaches encouraging
resilience, we could eliminate some stigmas from the military. Changing the ‘mantra,’ like the
one the Marines use, could decrease the feeling that you cannot get mental help while in the
military, and would increase the use of the current programs to help treat mental health issues.
Discouraging this type of negative association to mental illness in the military could quickly
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change the way society and the soldiers serving in the military view accepting their mental
illness and receiving treatment.
Solution
The most efficient way to decrease the mental illness rates in the military is to bring
awareness to the issue at hand, and to break the negative stigma surrounding getting mental help.
The first step that needs to be taken is to change the way society has learned to view mental
health issues. This can be done by “educating military leadership, changing the culture of
seeking mental health care, and veteran-specific programmed aimed at decreasing stigma and
engaging veterans in care” (AAC, 2022). The stigma can also be changed by altering the way the
military themselves is advertising. Just simply changing the “mantra” of certain branches, like
the Marines, could help people have a more accepting outlook on having mental health issues.
By opening up peoples’ minds to accept the idea of everyone in the military not always being in
a perfect mental state, the people in the military who are struggling with mental illness will no
longer be afraid to get treatment, which will decrease military mental issue rates. We also need to
require some sort of mental health screening every couple of months. With PTSD branching
from traumatic events, screenings to make sure each recent event did not create a new mental
illness will help us catch the issue early on. If signs of PTSD are noticed during these screenings,
the symptoms will be able to be treated much earlier on, helping decrease the negative side
effects from the disorder. This will decrease the severity of the disorder, which could in turn stop
the PTSD from branching into other mental illnesses, like addiction and depression, as severe
PTSD often does.
Conclusion
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Mental illness in the military is spiking, with more and more people reporting mental
illness from the military each day. PTSD, addiction, depression, and anxiety are sweeping
through the U.S. military, and causing many issues to the well-being of these people who suffer
with mental illnesses. With the symptoms getting worse during active-duty combat and
deployment, there needs to be programs to catch the illness early on so that it does not progress
into something even worse than it is. In order to make sure these programs are efficient,
however, the huge negative stigma surrounding getting mental health treatment while you are in
the military needs to be broken. By bringing awareness to the issues the stigma is causing and by
showing the benefits of the mental health treatments, more people will be open to reaching out
themselves to the programs and will reap the benefits of the current programs that are efficiently
created, such as the VA and the Psychological Health Outreach program.

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References
Gielan, S. A. and M., Kopans, D., & Molinsky, A. (2021, September 17). The Dark Side of
Resilience. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from
https://hbr.org/2017/08/the-dark-side-of-resilience
Home. U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2023, from
https://www.marforres.marines.mil/Staff-Sections/Special-Staff/Health-Services-
Support/Psychological-Health-Outreach-Program/
Myers, M. (2022, August 19). Marine Corps, Army report disproportionate substance abuse,
mental health issues. Military Times. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2022/06/24/marine-corps-army-
have-disproportionate-amounts-of-substance-abuse-mental-health-
issues/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAfter%20adjustment%2C%20service%20members%20in,jo
urnal%20Drug%20and%20Alcohol%20Dependence.
Nami Homefront. NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2023, from
https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Mental-Health-Education/NAMI-Homefront
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Veterans & Active Duty. NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2023, from
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Duty#:~:text=Nearly%201%20in%204%20active,the%20transition%20to%20civilian%20l
ife
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Va.gov: Veterans Affairs. Aging Veterans and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms. (2007, January
1). Retrieved April 4, 2023, from
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Veterans%20find%20they,loss%20of%20interest%20in%20activities
Va Mental Health Services. Veterans Affairs. (2023, January 11). Retrieved April 4, 2023, from
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Military stigma: Substance abuse and mental health. American Addiction Centers. (2022,
December 15). Retrieved March 3, 2023, from
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/veterans/stigma-impacts
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Rahill, G. J., Ganapati, N. E., Joshi, M., Bristol, B., Molé, A., Jean-Pierre, A., Dionne, A., &
Benavides, M. (2016). In their Own Words: Resilience among Haitian Survivors of the
2010 Earthquake. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 27(2), 580–603.
https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2016.0100
Stigma. STIGMA | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14,
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https://americanaddictioncenters.org/veterans/substance-abuse-marines
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Is it important to be resilient in today's society?
3/21/23
Words:1800
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Resilience is something mankind has always had and shown. And it's not only mankind that shows it, so
do most animals. Resilience is shown throughout history and is still being shown today. Things that
resilience most commonly appear in would be things like work, school, sports, daily life problems, etc.
This brings up the question: is it important to be resilient in today’s society where almost everything is
handed to you? “Brown rats in New York City may be evolving smaller rows of teeth. Tiny fish across the
Eastern US have adapted to thrive in polluted urban waters. Around the globe, living things are evolving
differently in cities than in the surrounding countryside. It’s happening in plants: White clover in
downtown Toronto is less likely than clover in surrounding rural areas to produce cyanide that deters
herbivores — a trend mirrored in cities in many countries, a new study finds. And it’s going on in birds:
Songbirds in Europe and owls in Argentina show evidence of natural selection in genes associated with
cognition.” (Bender 1). This direct quote tells us that it’s not just humans and animals that have resilience
but that plants also have a form of resilience to adapt and evolve. But this also informs us that you need to
have the will to keep moving forward to survive and adapt to your surroundings. If humans could learn
how to be as resilient as plants and animals we would have fewer problems as a whole. An example of
this would be that in sports if you get injured you have to be resilient and be patient and heal and once
that does you'll have to push through to get back to your old strength and to do that you have to be
resilient and if you're not you’ll most likely drop the sport. Resilience is also important for construction “
Some of these cultures you may have never heard of They live in the most remote places on earth, facing
environmental extremes like desert drought and frequent flooding a couple of years ago, I traveled to
northern India to a place overlooking the plains of Bangladesh where the Khasi people live in a forest that
receives more rainfall than anywhere else on earth and during the monsoon season, travel between
villages is cut off by these floods, which transforms this entire landscape from a forested canopy into an
isolated island. This hill tribe has evolved living root bridges that are created by guiding and growing tree
roots that you barely wrap your arm around through a carefully woven scaffolding multiple generations of
Khasi men and women and the children, they’ll take care of these roots as they grow to the other side of
the bank where they’re planted to make a structure that will get stronger with age.” (Watson 0:48-1:53)
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This shows us what would happen when humans put their minds to something that they need to use. This
also tells us the most common time resilience is shown is when it's beneficial to people's daily lives and
helps them in some way.
From the two sources we have found out that resilience is most commonly found in things that are trying
to survive and adapt to their surroundings. Whether it be adapting to eating something new or building
something to help yourself and other people or producing less of something. All of these things took
resilience to complete. But this again brings us back to the question: is it important to be resilient in
today’s society where almost everything is handed to you? Before we conclude let's look at more
examples to come to a decision. “We live in challenging times with a heightened sense of uncertainty and
constant reminders of the unpredictability of what might be lurking around the corner; be it catastrophic
climate events, terrorist attacks, credit crunch, youth riots, or mass redundancies. For planners in the UK,
this wider sense of unease is exacerbated by a decade of constant change and perennial attacks on the
value of their professional contributions to society. Among the prescribed remedies for dealing with such
a state of flux, the one that is rapidly gaining currency is “resilience”. It appears that resilience is
replacing sustainability in everyday discourses in much the same way as the environment has been
subsumed in the hegemonic imperatives of climate change (Davoudi, Citation 2012). Yet, it is not quite
clear what resilience means, beyond the simple assumption that it is good to be resilient. Despite this lack
of clarity, there is a growing number of governmental and non-governmental reports which aim to
develop ready-made, off-the-shelf toolkits for resilience-building. One such report, supported by the
Department of Business and Innovation and Skills (BIS) considers “cross-dressing” as a way of building
community resilience (RRAC, Citation 2009, p. 10). These beg the following questions: Is resilience in
danger of becoming just another buzzword?” (Davou, Shaw, Haider, Quinlan, Peterson, Wilkinson,
Fünfgeld, McEvoy, Porter, Davoudi 1). This text tells us that there is a possibility that resilience may
become an empty word because it's replacing sustainability in everyday discourse. And if this were to
happen then we remotely wouldn't need it if that’s the case. “The concept of resilience has evolved
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considerably since Holling's (1973) seminal paper. Different interpretations of what is nearby retail are
science, however, they are confusing. The resilience of a system needs to be considered in terms of the
attributes that govern the system's dynamics. Three related attributes of social-ecological systems (SESs)
determine their future trajectories: resilience, and adaptability. and transformability. Resilience (the
capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while changing to still retain essentially the
same function, structure, identity, and feedback) has four components: latitude, resistance, precariousness,
and panarchy most readily portrayed using the metaphor of a stable landscape. Adaptability is the
capacity of actors in the system to influence resilience (in an SES, essentially to manage it). There are
four general ways in which this can be done, corresponding to the four aspects of resilience. (Walker,
Holling, Carpenter, Kinzig 1). This source counteracts the previous one by stating that the concept of
resilience has come a long way from where it started. If the concept has come a long way but the word is
losing meaning that could mean the word is being overused for the wrong situations.
“Resilience is widely seen as a desirable system property in environmental management…. the concept
of resilience to natural hazards, using weather-related hazards in coastal megacities as an example.” This
piece tells us that the most common use and need for resilience would be when natural disasters hit
communities. Psychological resilience is important in most situations but it's more effective “ in sports
because athletes must constantly withstand a wide range of pressures to attain and sustain high
performance. To advance psychologists’ understanding of this area, there exists an urgent need to develop
a sport-specific measure of resilience.”(Mustafa Sarkar, David Fletcher) This informs us that sports are
usually draining for the player so they have to be resilient and keep going and trying so they can get better
and better. “Individuals who experience loss of their physical abilities often face the challenges of
adapting to a new way of life. Past research has shown that sports participation can assist the physical and
psychological adaptation to acquired physical disabilities. The purposes of our study were to examine the
following: (a) the resilience process of sport participants with acquired spinal cord injury, and (b) the role
of sport participation in the resilience process. We conducted semistructured phenomenological interviews
with 12 male quadriplegic wheelchair rugby players. Results show that the development of resilience is a
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multifactorial process involving pre-existing factors and pre-adversity experiences, disturbance/disturbing
emotions, various types and sources of social support, special opportunities, and experiences, various
behavioral and cognitive coping strategies, motivation to adapt to changes, and learned attributes or gains
from the resilience process. We discuss implications for future research and practice.”(Moe Machida,
Brandon Irwin, Deborah Feltz) This piece backs what was stated earlier about how people who play
sports need to be so resilient. Teachers tend to have more resilience when they are with a teacher that they
like having, teach them at school.”This paper draws on qualitative data from an Australian longitudinal
study begun in 1997 and completed in 2005. It identifies the ordinary, everyday, relational, ‘little things’
that teachers do to nurture and promote their students’ resilience at school. It briefly uses Giddens’
structuration theory to justify the study of micro-level relationships between teachers and students. It uses
the voices of students to show how everyday life at school is the source of significant
resilience-promoting influences. In doing so, this paper demonstrates why local activities and
relationships matter – because they have the potential to reinforce traditional school structures and
processes or to transform them to better support student resilience.”(Bruce Johnson) This helps prove that
the more teachers are friendly with students, the more they will have more successful classrooms.
“impacts of globalization processes on community resilience. It argues that theoretical concepts such as
transition theory can provide a lens through which resilience pathways at the community level can be
better understood, and proposes a framework focused on a social resilience approach for understanding
community resilience as the conceptual space at the intersection between economic, social, and
environmental capital. It argues that certain types of communities are losing resilience through increased
embeddedness into globalized pathways of decision-making, while other communities may be gaining
resilience, although not one system is either resilient or vulnerable. Striking the right ‘balance’ between
communities and their scalar interactions with the global level is key for maximization of community
resilience: while too much isolation of a community may be bad in light of over-dependency on local
resources, skills, and people, ‘over-globalization’, with possible loss of autonomy and identity, may be
equally fraught with problems. In particular, relocalized communities have, so far, not shown much
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tangible success, as almost all members of the relocalization process at the community level are
simultaneously embedded within the global capitalist system through their dependencies on global
economic processes.``(Geoff A. Wilson) This article talks about the world's changing and so do
communities and these communities doing this show resilience.
These sources help us out and explain that we will need to be resilient our whole lives to keep progressing
as a person. They also shed light on some subjects that aren't talked about very often. Now we understand
that resilience is not something that most people nowadays don’t understand, that you will need to
progress as a person, and that it comes in more than one form for more than one reason. Thanks for
reading and I hope you will also show resilience in some way shape or form.
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Work Cited
authors, A., & Davoudi, S. (n.d.). Resilience: A bridging concept or a dead end? "reframing"
Resilience: Challenges for planning theory and practice interacting traps: Resilience assessment of a
pasture management system in northern Afghanistan Urban Resilience: What does it mean in planning
practice? resilience as a useful concept for climate change adaptation? the politics of resilience for
planning: A cautionary note. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2012.677124
Author links open overlay panel Geoff A. Wilson, AbstractThis article investigates the impacts of
globalization processes on community resilience. It argues that theoretical concepts such as transition
theory can provide a lens through which resilience pathways at the community level can be better
understood, Young, O. R., Winter, M., Smit, B., Rigg, J., North, P., Kelkar, U., Janssens, W., ‘Geels, F.,
Folke, C., DuPuis, E. M., Haan, J. D., Dahle, K., Cutter, S. L., Bodin, Ö., Bardhan, P., Bailey, I., Agrawal,
A., … Harvey, D. (2012, April 12). Community resilience, globalization, and transitional pathways of
decision-making. Geoforum. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718512000681
How should we measure psychological resilience in sports performers? Taylor & Francis. (n.d.).
Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1091367X.2013.805141
Perspective resilience, adaptability, and transformability in ... - JSTOR. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2023,
from https://www.jstor.org/stable/26267673
Resilient communities: Sustainabilities in transition. Taylor & Francis. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16,
2023, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549839.2012.676637
Resilience in competitive athletes with spinal cord injury: The role of ... (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2023,
from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1049732313493673?journalCode=qhra
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2023, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.hazards.2004.02.001
Teacher–student relationships which promote resilience at school: A micro-level analysis of Students'

views. Taylor & Francis. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2023, from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03069880802364528
AP® Seminar 2023 Scoring Commentary
Performance Task 2
Note: Student samples are quoted verbatim and may contain spelling and grammatical errors.
Overview
This task assessed the student’s ability to:
• Review a set of stimulus materials and decide on a theme derived from at least two of
the sources.
• Formulate a research question directly related to that theme.
• Conduct research and evaluate relevant, credible and scholarly materials to answer
the research question.
• Formulate a well-reasoned argument with a clear line of reasoning and a plausible conclusion.
• Evaluate and acknowledge counterarguments and different perspectives.
• Write a 2,000-word argument that is logically organized and supported by credible evidence.
Sample: A
1 Understand and Analyze Context Score: 5
3 Understand and Analyze Perspective Score: 9
4 Establish Argument Score: 12
5 Select and Use Evidence Score: 9
6 Apply Conventions Citations Score: 5
7 Apply Conventions Grammar and Style Score: 3
Row 1: Understand and Analyze Context

The response earned 5 points. The response effectively incorporates Bender (“Within U.S. cities
the impacts of climate change are already far-reaching as cities often serve as harbingers for
the future effects of a warming climate”) to establish context and justification for the research
question. The response cites Bender’s claim that cities “[give] you the global climate warming
that we would expect by 2050 or 2070 or 2100,” which supports the response’s focus on urban
and freight transportation. Though Bender is focused on “Urban Evolution,” the response
accurately and authentically uses the source to demonstrate that cities, with their concentrations
of pollution and population, provide valuable early insight into the effects of climate change,
which strengthens the argument. The response later includes Watson, but this inclusion is not
as strong as the use of Bender.

The response earned 5 points. The context of the research question is established through
discussion and statistics; the response notes the “0.2 degrees Celsius per decade” rise in
global temperatures, introduces the claim that the subsequent “disruptive and abjectly
harmful [effects] thus necessitates a significant response,” and further narrows the focus to
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Performance Task 2
“highly industrialized nations such as the United States.” The response demonstrates the
relevance of its focus on urban and freight transportation through its use of Bender to establish
cities as “key for understanding responses to global climate change” and includes statistics
(“Transportation activities accounted for 38.6 percent of U.S. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel
combustion in 2021”) to support its argument for “a modal shift in passenger and freight
transportation.” The response crafts and contextualizes a specific and focused research question
and provides enough detail to make its importance explicit.
Row 3: Understand and Analyze Perspective

The response earned 9 points. Throughout the response, perspectives are supported by
evidence and placed into conversation. The response establishes the “individual passenger
vehicle” as a “devastating” industry and engages with an obstacle to its proposed solution
on page 3, noting that “the automobile industry is incentivized to lobby to prevent legislation
against environmental issues.” On page 7, the response explicitly connects Lovasia’s discussion
of air pollution from diesel buses to Deliali’s claims regarding the greater fuel efficiency and
lack of tailpipe emissions in electric buses. The response consistently provides commentary
and elaboration on the relationships between its sources (“both studies unveil how high-speed
rail could thus bolster American cities’ ability to combat the growing effects of climate change”;
“Todorut … thus coordinates with that offered by Deliali to reveal the strong improvements in
fuel efficiency that electric buses create”).
Row 4: Establish Argument

The response earned 12 points. The argument follows a logical organizational pattern:
first establishing the importance of the research question, then developing evidence of the
damaging effects of the transportation industry, then engaging with both planned and proven
shifts to high-speed rails and electric buses, and finally bringing the argument to a close in
a well-aligned conclusion that reiterates the importance of the issue and the benefits of the
proposed solution. The response includes well-chosen evidence and demonstrates its reasoning
through commentary: “by investing in such transportation technologies, the United States
would be propelling its capability to reduce transportation emissions as reduced personal vehicle
travel will consequently decrease the most significant portion of transportation emissions.”
The argument includes clear and specific claims—the United States must invest in high-speed
rails and shift to electric passenger buses in cities to reduce emissions from both urban and
freight transportation—that are supported with evidence and developed with student commentary.
This response earned a high score on this row but would have been further strengthened by more
exploration of counterarguments or limitations; for example, the response might have considered
the cost of constructing high-speed rails or converting a city’s bus fleet to electric vehicles.
Row 5: Select and Use Evidence

The response earned 9 points. Out of 17 cited sources, eight are from peer-reviewed journals,
and the remaining non-stimulus sources come from credible organizations such as the
Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations. The response selects relevant,
focused evidence to support its claims and uses paraphrase effectively to incorporate more
complex ideas from within the sources. Selected evidence is used purposefully to support

Performance Task 2
claims (“the construction of high-speed rail lines in China led to an annual reduction of about
11.183 million tons of carbon dioxide with great potential for significantly greater reductions”;
“battery electric buses always exhibited a fuel efficiency that was three times greater than that
of diesel buses while additionally maintaining zero tailpipe emissions”) and includes analysis.
The response establishes the credibility of its sources through both accurate bibliographic
entries, attributive phrasing, and in-text citations (“Professor of data engineering Mathias Boehm
of the Berlin Institute of Technology”).
Row 6: Apply Conventions (Citations)

The response earned 5 points. Sources are consistently introduced with attributive phrasing that
often includes both the author and the publication, though this degree of attribution is superfluous
because of the complete and accurate Works Cited. The response has few flaws—the United Nations
and United States Environmental Protection Agencies are listed correctly in attributive phrasing,
but the parenthetical citation lists the title of each source instead—and all sources can be connected
to their bibliographic entries with minimal effort by the reader. The least successful linkage is the
second Liu source on the Works Cited—in the response, the source is introduced “as was noted
by Dr. Sakirdat Kaewunruen” and parenthetically cited as “(Liu et al. 12),” but the combination
of the parenthetical citation and the listing of the journal in the attribution (Frontiers In Built
Environment) still successfully guide the reader to the correct bibliographic entry.
Row 7: Apply Conventions (Grammar and Style)

The response earned 3 points. The writing throughout the response is consistently academic
in tone and makes use of varied syntax and precise, effective vocabulary to communicate its claims.
Some sentences are so long they become unwieldy—often when the response is introducing and
attributing a source—but generally effective punctuation is used to guide the reader through the
information: “Additionally, this complication created by individual personal vehicles exists as
a consequence of the automobile industry as a whole, rather than specific products or models,
as Dr. Giulio Mattiolo, a research fellow at the Department of Transportation….” The response
establishes a scholarly tone through both its sentence structure and word choice. For example:
“Moreover, a further pivot towards high-speed rail development rather than trucking infrastructure
would serve to propel the United States’ ability to plausibly reduce its transportation greenhouse
gas emissions.” The response tends towards repetition in its phrasing (the word “moreover”
appears eight times) and would have been strengthened by more varied vocabulary, but still
achieves a high score on this row.

Performance Task 2
Sample: B

The response earned 5 points. The response successfully integrates “The Dark Side of Resilience”
in discussing the problematic stigma of the U.S. Marine’s training program as an example of
emphasizing too much resilience when it comes to mental health in the military. This takes place
later in the essay and seems vital to complete the argument. The response’s earlier attempt to
also incorporate the Rahill article on Haiti earthquake survivors is not an essential use of the
stimulus source.

The response earned 5 points. The response firmly situates the argument in context by including
mental health statistics indicating “nearly 1 in 4 active-duty members” have mental health issues
that are “sweeping through the U.S. military.” The response further specifies the urgency of this
concern by providing evidence mostly from the U.S. Marine Corps: “While serving in all branches
of the military is challenging, the Army and the Marines have the most extreme conditions.”

The response earned 6 points. While the response does bring in different perspectives about the
topic of mental health for military personnel from organizations such as the VA and researchers
for NAMI, this display of perspectives is only general. The response does not attempt to connect
the various perspectives to show continuity. Rather, the sources seem stacked one upon the other
to imply a connection that is not explicit.

The response earned 8 points. The response argues the moderately organized claim that “Mental
illness is one of the most prevalent issues for people who serve in the military, and more efficient
ways to reduce these problems need to be put in place.” The response moves through a logical
process presenting the “psychological effects of poor mental health because of serving in the
military, the past political solutions that have failed, and the possible economic solutions.”
Occasionally, the evidence itself drives the argument instead of supporting the argument as
seen in the long passages concerning PTSD, while other evidence regarding poor mental health
is underdeveloped.

Performance Task 2

The response earned 6 points. The response successfully references evidence of credible
sources from reputable groups, including the VA and the National Alliance on Mental Illness
(NAMI). The variety of sources relevant to the topic includes military news articles and information
from organizations involved in addiction recovery and mental illness treatment for military
personnel. Without sufficient academic sources, the response relies on reputable organizations,
which situate it in the middle of the rubric’s explanation of scoring options.

The response earned 3 points. While the response provides mostly successful linking between
the references and the in-text citations, some errors cause the reader to guess the connections
without certainty. The response also does not distinguish between the three NAMI entries on
the References page and does not correctly link the stimulus sources.

The response earned 2 points. The response is not difficult to read overall, but it often lapses
into a colloquial tone that does not meet the standards for an academic audience. Additionally,
several punctuation errors and vague word choices contribute to a middle score. For instance,
the response claims, “Mental illness needs to be caught and treated in the military quicker
and more efficiently.” The response often includes imprecise wording such as things and something
and phrases such as “major issue” to discuss significant elements of the argument.

Performance Task 2
Sample: C

The response earned 0 points. The response brings in the Bender and Watson sources with
long quotations, but their use is tangential at best, intended for little more than defining the
concept of resilience. The Bender quote is included to show that not only humans are resilient
but also animals; the Watson quote is introduced to show that “Resilience is also important for
construction.” Obviously, because the response intends to answer the question: “is it important
to be resilient in today’s society where almost everything is handed to you?” it qualifies as
being on topic.

The response earned 0 points. The contextualization of the topic is difficult to ascertain.
The response refers to “mankind” in general before adding all plants and animals as well,
which proves too broad and generalized to present any sense of urgency. On the rare occasion
when the response offers any language that might provide limits or clear lines of demarcation
to bring focus to the topic, the response remains vague, “From the two sources we have found
out that resilience is most commonly found in things that are trying to survive and adapt to
their surroundings.”

The response earned 0 points. The response presents several sourced opinions about resilience,
treating the topic in an oversimplified manner. The response confuses voices or lenses with
perspectives, providing commentary on resilience from several fields of study, such as linguistics,
athletics, and ancient civilizations. While these observations derive from different sources,
the response simply repeats the message that resilience is necessary if humans want to progress.
There is an attempt to compare two sources, but the explanation is confusing: “This source
counteracts the previous one by stating that the concept of resilience has come a long way from
where it started. If the concept has come a long way but the word is losing meaning that could
mean the word is being overused for the wrong situations.”

Performance Task 2

The response earned 0 points. The response does not provide an argument; rather, it posits
the opinion that “Resilience is something mankind has always had and shown.” The response
stacks multiple examples of people showing or discussing resilience, including athletes who
are injured and teachers who encourage students, but these examples do not include evidence
to support any sort of argument. In this way, the response rambles and lacks organization.
There are several claims found throughout the response that do not rise to the level of a legitimate
argument. These insertions offer little insight or analysis and make flawed leaps in logic.
For example, the response proclaims, “If humans could learn how to be as resilient as plants
and animals we would have fewer problems as a whole” and seems to equate all examples of
resilience as the same: “Whether it be adapting to eating something new or building something
to help yourself and other people or producing less of something. All of these things took resilience
to complete.” Meanwhile, other claims within the response are untethered to the original question
or topic and leave the reader wondering what, exactly, the paper is trying to substantiate, such as
this one: “This helps prove that the more teachers are friendly with students, the more they will
have more successful classrooms.”

The response earned 0 points. The response includes a Work Cited [sic] with eight entries, none of
which are discernable as scholarly sources with relevance to the topic. Two of the entries appear
to be copied source summations rather than bibliographic sources of information. The other entries
do not provide enough information to determine credibility, using only titles and URLs.

The response earned 0 points. The response does contain in-text citations for a few of the longer
quotations, but it does not successfully link these citations to any of the listed sources on the
reference page. For instance, the response has an in-text citation for Geoff A. Wilson and another
for Bruce Johnson after lengthy quotes, but Wilson and Johnson are not listed in the references.
Furthermore, there are legitimate questions regarding student commentary around these citations.
Specifically, it is difficult to determine if the student’s editorializing is related to the preceding quote
or the seceding quote.

The response earned 0 points. The overall tone is not appropriate for an academic audience, as
evidenced by the consistent use of contractions and a confusing shifting of points of view in the
narrative. There are transitions from the second person you to first person plural we and to
third- person entries such as communities. The response also contains many grammatical and
punctuation errors, including run-on sentences and fragments that make it difficult to read. One
example that shows a representative lack of clarity is as follows: “Different interpretations of what is
nearby retail are science, however, they are confusing.” Finally, the ending takes on the tone of a
personal letter when it concludes, “Now we understand that resilience is not something that most
people nowadays don’t understand, that you will need to progress as a person, and that it comes in
more than one form for more than one reason. Thanks for reading and I hope you will also show
resilience in some way shape or form.”


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2023

Individual Written Argument

Individual Written Argument (IWA) 48 points

General Scoring Notes

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Individual Written Argument (IWA) 48 points

© 2023 College Board

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Decision Rules and Scoring Notes

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Oral Defense (OD)

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Breaking Car Dependency: An Evaluation of Mass Passenger and Freight Transportations

Effectiveness in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

May 1st, 2023

Word Count: 2173

According to a study authored by Professor James Hansen of Columbia University's

phenomenon is indicative of the broader impacts of global anthropogenic climate change as a

consequence of industrialization as greenhouse gas emissions have subsequently and

the implementation of adaptive technologies as a measure to prevent disaster. As a potential

and freight transportation to high-speed rail as well as an accompanying electrification of urban

The most devastating subdivision of transportation in terms of raw greenhouse gas

Planning of the University of Dortmund Germany, and colleagues confirmed in an article

automobile-centric development continues to perpetrate environmental injustice, thus requiring

to this complication created by automobiles has proven to be highly effective in achieving

transportation system. Furthermore, by investing in such transportation technologies, the United

transportation modes to a heating globe.

Subsequent to the environmental degradation created by passenger transportation therein

in America. Commercial trucking contributes immense quantities of carbon dioxide, as was

Research which found, “Freight transport…contribute[s] an average of…27.5% to total road

additionally illustrated significant plausibility as both a reprieve to the trucking industry's

transportation of freight has previously been noted to be exceptionally beneficial in terms of

Birmingham’s Department of Civil Engineering and several other contributors in a study

climate change, thus indicating its plausibility as an adaptive technological solution.

Accompanying the further promotion of high-speed rail as a technical solution to the

of mass and uninhibited industrialization.

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Deliali, Aikaterini et al. “Transitioning to Zero-Emission Bus Fleets: State of Practice of

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Transport Sector: A Decomposition Analysis.” International Journal of Environmental

Research and Public Health, vol. 19, no. 4, 2022, p. 2321,

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Logistics via Air-Rail-Road Freight Transportation.” Frontiers in Built Environment, vol.

7, 2021, https://doi.org10.3389/fbuil.2021.685884. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

Clean Bus Program on Changes to Estimated Ambient Air Pollution.” Journal of

Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 2022,

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