Consider the following original claim: “What people repeatedly notice becomes a form of responsibility, whether or not they intended to choose it.” Write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which this claim is valid. Support your reasoning with evidence from reading, observation, or experience.
What the evaluator is looking for
AP readers look for a defensible thesis, relevant specific evidence, commentary that establishes a line of reasoning, and sophistication through qualification, broader context, or recognition of tensions.
Planning approach
Argue that repeated attention creates knowledge and influence, therefore limited responsibility, using journalism and social media while preserving finite human capacity.
Model response
Repeated attention creates responsibility because noticing builds knowledge, habits, and influence. A person who continually witnesses a problem cannot claim exactly the same innocence as someone unaware of it. However, responsibility should be proportional; human attention is finite, and awareness alone does not create unlimited power.
Journalists make the connection visible. A reporter who repeatedly covers unsafe housing gains sources and understands patterns that isolated residents cannot see. That knowledge carries a duty to verify and publish, even though the reporter did not create the conditions. Choosing to look over time has produced a special capacity to act.
Ordinary social-media users face a weaker version. Repeatedly sharing humiliating videos helps reward the creators and trains recommendation systems to distribute similar material. “I only watched” ignores how aggregated attention functions as currency. Yet people encounter more suffering online than anyone could remedy. Demanding an answer to every noticed injustice would produce paralysis and guilt rather than service. Responsibility grows when attention is sustained, voluntary, informed, and connected to a feasible response. People should examine what they repeatedly follow because habits of notice shape the world they understand and the systems they reward. They need not solve everything, but they cannot treat chosen attention as morally weightless.
Structural breakdown
The thesis makes responsibility proportional rather than absolute. Professional attention illustrates acquired capacity; platform behavior demonstrates indirect influence; the limitation addresses overload and feasibility.
- Connect attention to knowledge or influence.
- Use a profession with a duty to act.
- Explain how passive viewing has aggregate effects.
- Limit responsibility by capacity and feasibility.
Format reference: College Board: AP English Language Past Exam Questions. This model is original and is not an official or accepted submission.