Part 1
Know what the IRR has to do
You can name the four jobs your paper is scored on before you write a word.
Performance Task 1
IRR: Individual Research Report
Overview
IRR
Individual Research Report
The purpose of the IRR is to explore the complexity of an issue by examining it through different perspectives and connecting it to the larger context. Remember: this is a research report, not an argumentative essay.
1,200 words. Titles, subheadings, and in-text citations count. Footnoted citations, the bibliography, and text in figures or tables do not.
Yours. Your own question, your own sources, your own angle on a team's issue.
10% of your AP score. Scored by College Board readers, not by Mrs. Cohen. Nothing touching the real IRR receives a grade; only the practice cycle is graded. Six rubric rows, 30 points.
Practice first. A practice IRR (due Oct 15 for Periods 3 and 5, Oct 16 for Periods 2 and 6) counts in the gradebook and not toward your AP score. It is where you learn the moves. Then the real one this fall.
So far you have analyzed other people's arguments one at a time. In the IRR you put several of them in conversation about a question you chose.
- Name your slice of the problem and explain how it connects to the whole issue.
- Summarize, explain, analyze, and evaluate what your sources argue and how they reason.
- Identify, compare, and interpret a range of perspectives on the issue. A perspective is a source's argument, not a lens and not a group of people.
- Cite everything, in the text and in a works cited.
Not an opinion essay. Not a summary. You do not argue a thesis; you put other people's arguments in conversation and evaluate them. Your voice lives in the analysis and evaluation, not in a claim. (The optional recommendation at the end is the one place your position appears.)
What This Is
Your team picks a shared problem, and each member investigates it through a different lens. Your IRR reports what the conversation around your lens looks like: the perspectives, the evidence, the stakeholders, and where they disagree. You synthesize; you do not argue your own position. It is worth 50% of PT1 and is scored by College Board.
What You Submit
The ~1,200 word report with a complete, accurate Works Cited, uploaded to the AP Digital Portfolio. Along the way you also complete the Source Tracker, the Simple IRR Outline, and process checkpoints in class, which document that the work is yours.
Build it
Step 1
Refine the Team Research Question
Start in the Research Question Workshop, in the Practice section: climb the ladder from Subject to Topic to Issue, write one question with a stem, and run the five tests (Open-Ended, Specific, Debatable, Researchable, Interesting). Then ask the tie-breaker question: given this research, who would actually do something differently?
Step 2
Claim a Lens
Each team member takes a different one of the eleven and reads with that lens's guiding questions in hand. The sources you have read so far can hint at yours.
Step 3
Gather and Vet Sources
Log every source in the Source Tracker and score it with RAVEN. Aim for credible, diverse source types: academic, news, data. Log the finding, not just the source. In the 'How I'll Use This Source' column, name which part of your question the source answers.
Start in JSTOR and ProQuest through the school library's website. ScienceDirect will stop you at a login wall; skip it.
Step 4
Choose an Organization
Pick one of three structures: organize by perspective, weave perspectives throughout, or organize topically. See the Build the IRR tab.
Step 5
Draft, Peer Review, Revise
Swap drafts with your assigned partner on Canvas and score each other row by row against the rubric, citing text evidence and giving specific grows. Then revise and run the Self-Check before submission.
Build the IRR
Part 2
Pick the shape that fits your sources
You can answer six questions and get the organization that fits your paper, then test it against your own sources.
Part 3
Build a body paragraph
You can write a paragraph that moves through all six moves without leaning on one source.
Part 4
Write the introduction and the conclusion
You can find the research question hiding inside a real opening paragraph.
Part 5
Check the rules that do not bend
You can check your draft against the seven lines that hold for every option, from 1,200 words to no paragraph on one source.
Want the paragraph-by-paragraph version? Open the Simple IRR Outline in the Tools gallery.
Questions to ask while you read for your lens
Use this checklist to self-evaluate before submission. Each "yes" moves you closer to a high score. Click items to check them off.
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Formatting & Setup
My IRR is formatted in MLA or APA, consistent throughout.
Page numbers are in the top right corner.
Practice IRR only: my word count is under my name and before Mrs. Cohen's name.
Real IRR (the one College Board scores): my name, my school, and my teacher's name appear nowhere in the paper. College Board's rule: "Remove any references to your name, school, and teacher."
I have a clear, specific title that reflects my research focus and lens.
My Works Cited or References page is on a separate page at the end.
Organization & Flow
I included signposts (headings or transitions) to guide my reader through each section.
My introduction explains the larger issue, why it matters ("So what? Who cares?"), and how my research fits in.
My framing statement is the final sentence of my introduction. It names my lens, the issue, and the perspectives my body paragraphs cover, and it does not take a side.
All paragraphs begin with topic sentences that connect to my framing statement and the team's research question.
I use clear transitions to move between sources, ideas, and perspectives.
Content & Analysis
I demonstrated the complexity of my topic, not just summaries of sources.
I identified and explained my individual lens and its significance to the larger issue.
I analyzed 10 to 12 credible sources, most of them Tier 1 (scholarly): the same sources my Source Tracker lists.
I explained each source's credibility (author expertise, publication, date) the first time I use it.
I have commentary after every piece of evidence that connects it to my main claim.
My sources are in conversation: I compare, contrast, or synthesize rather than list.
I discuss implications, limitations, or consequences of the issue from my lens.
I avoided just summarizing. I analyze how and why these sources matter.
Citation (Row 5)
All sources are cited in-text correctly and consistently.
Style (Row 6)
My tone is formal and academic (no "I," "you," "we," or conversational phrasing).
I proofread for grammar, punctuation, and clarity.
Final Reflection
My report situates my lens in the broader context of the team's research question.
I clearly showed the significance of my findings to the overall problem or issue.
A reader would understand why my lens matters to the team's topic as a whole.
Checklist complete. Your IRR is ready for one last read-through.
Checkpoints
Checkpoints are College Board's way of confirming the work is yours. Checkpoint 1 (required for the IRR and the IWA): your Source Tracker, reviewed by Mrs. Cohen. Checkpoint 2 (IWA only): your outline. Checkpoint 3: a written review of your draft, not a conversation. Mrs. Cohen then affirms your work in the AP Digital Portfolio before the College Board deadline; a paper that is not affirmed scores a zero.
Due: Checkpoint 1, your Source Tracker, November 20. The College Board deadline, April 30.
IRR Skills
L
Research Lens
Each teammate examines the team question through a different lens, with the guiding questions for all eleven one tap away.
RAVEN
Source Credibility
Vet every source with the RAVEN method: Reputation, Ability to observe, Vested interest, Expertise, Neutrality. Track ratings in the Source Tracker.
Open the Source Tier TrainerMultiple Perspectives
Stakeholders rebut, complement, support, limit, or constrain one another. Put them in conversation rather than listing them.
Synthesis
Compare, contrast, and connect sources. Avoid paragraphs where a topic sentence leans on a single source.
Tools
Ask the question
Question Check
Five tests for your research question. Type your question and press Check my question.
Research Question Workshop
Eight skills, in order, each with a practice.
Go to the Research Question WorkshopResearch Question Development Tracker
Google Doc. Opens in a new tab.
Open the Research Question Development TrackerFind and vet sources
Source Tracker
Log up to 15 sources, then rate each one on Reputation, Ability to observe, Vested interest, Expertise, and Neutrality.
Annotated Bibliography
One entry for every source on your Source Tracker: citation, summary, credibility, relevance. Downloads as one file for Canvas.
RAVEN Method
RAVEN is how this course evaluates whether a source deserves your trust: Reputation, Ability to observe, Vested interest, Expertise, Neutrality.
Evidence Evaluation Organizer
How to apply RAVEN instead of naming it: the evaluation sentence frame, the limitation menu, and the 4 versus 6 example.
Source Tier Trainer
Paste the link of a real source you found, call its tier, and defend the call in one sentence.
Open the Source Tier TrainerThe eleven lenses
Lens or perspective? first, then each lens with its one-line question and the questions it makes you ask.
Read and analyze
What is synthesis, anyway?
What synthesis is, what it is not, where it scores, and the three synthesis moves.
Stuck on a sentence?
Sentence templates and transitions for introducing sources, quoting, naming naysayers, conceding, disagreeing, and clinching why it matters.
AP Seminar Vocabulary
Every term that shows up in the rubrics, the prompts, or Mrs. Cohen's feedback.
Draft and finish
IRR Organization Decider
Six questions about your sources and your lens, then the organization that fits your paper, with its outline and sample.
Test Your Pick With Your Sources
Pick one of the three organizations, label your sources, and see whether the pick holds up. Five short steps.
Simple IRR Outline
The paragraph-by-paragraph map: context, perspectives, limitations, thesis, expert-by-expert body paragraphs, synthesis, conclusion.
IRR Drafting Template
Pick one organization. Work in that tab. Every part of the paper with a frame, the sentence a 30 wrote for it, and room for your draft.
Open the IRR Drafting TemplateBuild the IRR
Five short lessons, from what the IRR has to do to the rules that do not bend.
Go to Build the IRRThesis Builder
Builds your framing statement for the IRR.
IRR Self-Check
You can paste your IRR and see what to fix before you submit.
Go to the IRR Self-CheckSquare Root Curve Chart
How raw rubric scores convert to gradebook percentages for the IRR, TMP, IWA, IMP, Oral Defense, EOC A, EOC B, and current events.
Can I use AI on this?
The Generative AI Acceptable Use Policy, phase by phase: what is allowed, what is not, and what costs you the task.
If a resource is not here, it is not something you need for the IRR.
Samples
Want to see what a top-scoring IRR looks like?
Rubric
- See the IRR rubric, word for word
- See where readers look, row by row
- See the IRR rubric in student language
- See the official PT1 scoring guidelines
Common Mistakes
The Book Report
What it looks like
South Africa wants to legalize the rhino horn trade. Vietnam has a growing market for rhino horns. The WWF opposes legalization. These are the perspectives on the issue.
What it should look like
Even though animal activism NGOs are against it, the governments of both producer and consumer nations involved in the trade such as South Africa and Vietnam are in favor of legalization; therefore, political consensus is to be expected on the matter among parties at the CITES CoP in 2016.
Put your sources in conversation. Compare them, contrast them, show where they agree and where they collide.
The Secret Lawyer
What it looks like
Buprenorphine is obviously the best treatment, and anyone who still prefers methadone is ignoring the evidence.
What it should look like
Buprenorphine has its pros and cons: Andrew J. Saxon of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington and his colleagues herald both buprenorphine and methadone but identify methadone's superiority in regard to treatment retention and buprenorphine's superiority in regard to reduced illicit opioid use early in treatment (Saxon 69).
Present the perspectives fairly and let the research talk. Your opinion gets its moment in the optional recommendation, and it gets a whole essay later in the IWA.
The Lone Wolf Paragraph
What it looks like
According to Ratycz and her colleagues, drug overdose deaths in the United States more than tripled from 1999 to 2016, and heroin especially contributed to this increase (Ratycz, Madison C., et al. 1). That is the whole paragraph.
What it should look like
Ratycz and her colleagues assert that heroin especially contributed to this increase in overdose deaths (Ratycz, Madison C., et al. 1). Shane Darke of the National Drug Abuse and Research Center at the University of New South Wales clarifies that "overdose" is a catch-all term used to describe heroin-related deaths in general; most heroin-related deaths are caused by polydrug toxicity (Darke 2061).
Every body paragraph draws on more than one source. If a topic sentence is held up by a single source, the paragraph is not done.
Credible Because I Said So
What it looks like
Drug and Alcohol Review is a credible source because it is a real medical journal.
What it should look like
According to a study published in Drug and Alcohol Review, which is a peer-reviewed medical journal, prescribing heroin instead of methadone decreases the risk of illicit heroin use by a patient after treatment (Metrebian 115). The obvious risk posed by this is that patients can become addicted to the provided heroin, albeit in controlled doses and of high purity.
Evaluate. Name the author's expertise, check who funds or benefits, and admit one specific limitation. A judgment beats a label every time.
The Quote Drop
What it looks like
"Around 40 percent of severely mentally ill people have been arrested at least once in their lives" (Smith, 2012).
What it should look like
Often they resort to crime in order to purposefully go to jail where they can be fed and housed. In fact, in a survey conducted by Smith (2012), an editor of the Sociology Compass journal, it was found that "around 40 percent of severely mentally ill people have been arrested at least once in their lives." Additionally, patients' untreated mental illnesses can also influence them to commit severe crimes.
After every piece of evidence, explain how it supports your claim. The connection is the part that earns credit.
The Lens Drift
What it looks like
Legalizing the rhino horn trade raises economic questions, and also ethical ones about whether animals should be sold at all, and cultural ones about why people want the horns in the first place.
What it should look like
Although it is necessary that the economic, environmental, and social-cultural perspectives are considered as well, given the political factors involved, it is recommended that CITES be amended to legalize the rhino horn trade worldwide.
Every section ties back to your lens and your team's research question. If a paragraph does not serve both, it does not make the cut.
The Word Count Gambler
What it looks like
The strongest point, that the U.K.'s prescription of heroin is a policy the U.S. could adopt, arrives in the last paragraph, past the 1,200-word limit, where the reader never sees it.
What it should look like
Word count: 1130. The question the whole paper answers closes paragraph one: "What can the United States learn from the successes and failures of other countries in addressing their heroin epidemics and apply to its own heroin epidemic?"
Treat 1,200 as a cliff, not a suggestion. Cut the warm-up, keep the analysis, and lead with your best idea.
The Cold Open
What it looks like
Rhino poaching is a big problem, and this paper will look at whether the trade should be legal.
What it should look like
Rhinos inhabit parts of Southern Asia and Africa; however, their populations have been dwindling due to a steep increase in rhino poaching. Last year, 1,215 rhinos were poached solely in South Africa, whereas only 13 rhinos were poached in the nation in 2007. This increase comes despite the conservation efforts of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora, which placed all but two rhino species on Appendix I of the Convention.
Open with cited context. Establish the problem, show the stakes, and let a source help you prove this conversation is real before you join it.
The Two-Source Wonder
What it looks like
Smith (2012) and the Treatment Advocacy Center take turns for the whole paragraph, and by its end they are repeating themselves.
What it should look like
In a survey conducted by Smith (2012), an editor of the Sociology Compass journal, it was found that "around 40 percent of severely mentally ill people have been arrested at least once in their lives." [...] Up to 50 percent of mass homicides have been associated with people suffering from serious mental illnesses (Treatment Advocacy Center). Providing more evidence of increased crime, Wallace, Mullen, and Burgess (2004) conducted a study where they examined the frequency of offenses among schizophrenic patients over a 25-year period [...]. Flory and Friedrich (1999) add that there happen to be more mental patients in jail than patients receiving proper treatment.
Build a real source base with scholarly voices in it. More perspectives means more conversation, and the conversation is where the points live. Ten to twelve real sources, most of them Tier 1, every claim attributed in the text.
The Hard Stop
What it looks like
In conclusion, deinstitutionalization has caused homelessness, crime, and isolation. Those are the three problems.
What it should look like
As a solution to the increased crime rates of mentally ill people and prison overpopulation, Smith (2012) offers the plan of diverting some of the funds used by the criminal justice system to handle the mentally ill people to the community mental services. [...] Thus, the responsibility is now in the hands of those who are aware of this crisis to find a solution for these patients to live with the greatest degree of life, liberty, and their pursuit of happiness.
Your conclusion synthesizes. Return to the significance, show what your lens revealed, and land on why it matters to your team's bigger question.
The Nested Question
What it looks like
How does social media affect teens, and what should schools do about it?
What it should look like
To what extent should California schools be responsible for reducing vaping among their students?
That “and what” is a second paper. The Chief Reader lists asking more than one question as a top mistake. Split it. Keep the one you can finish by the due date on the calendar.
The Everything Question
What it looks like
What are the effects of pollution?
What it should look like
To what extent should port cities reroute diesel trucks away from schools when it raises costs for local businesses?
Subject: pollution. Topic: diesel exhaust near schools. Issue: rerouting trucks protects students but costs local businesses.
Pollution covers air, water, and land, which is three different papers. Narrow your question until it names one problem, the people it affects, and a real tradeoff.
No card sits on this row yet.
Practice
Research Question Workshop
Eight skills, in order. Each card teaches in a few lines; the Practice button opens the work, and your work saves on this device. A done mark appears once a practice is finished.
Stop 1 Done
Tell an open question from a closed one
You can hear the difference before you write anything.
A closed question has a one-word answer or a fact you could look up. An open question needs a judgment. The IRR question is open, and it is one question.
Converting an open question to a closed one is not a downgrade: it tells you what facts to nail down before you can research the open one.
"How many hours of sleep do teenagers need?" is closed. "To what extent should school districts delay start times to protect teen sleep?" is open.
Stop 2 Done
Climb from a subject to an issue
You can get from "the atomic bomb" to a question with people and a tension in it.
Your team's topics share a subject. A subject is too big to research. Climb down until you reach an issue: a specific problem with stakeholders (the people affected) and a real tension (somebody has to give something up).
Research questions live at the issue level.
Subject: the atomic bomb. Topic: the decision to warn, or not warn, civilians before the attack. Issue: To what extent should militaries be required to warn civilian populations before an attack?
Stop 3 Done
Write one question with a stem
You can turn a topic into a single, open, debatable question.
Stems that force a judgment: To what extent should / could... What role does [factor] play in... How might [stakeholder] address... What responsibility does [group] have to... How effective is [approach] at...
Ask one question. One. Make it open. Name a place, a group, a time, or a practice. Ask what two informed people would answer differently.
Nest it, with an "and how" in the middle, and it is two papers. The Chief Reader lists this as a top mistake.
Stop 4 Done
Find the broken part and repair it
You can spot nesting, yes-or-no, a subject, an assumed answer, or a look-up, and fix it.
Every broken question breaks one rule. Name the rule, then rewrite.
The seven Don'ts: nest it; ask yes or no; ask a subject; assume the answer; ask for a fact you could look up; ask what nobody would push back on; ask what you would hate for two months.
Five broken questions wait inside. One is College Board's real question from a paper that scored 10 of 30.
Stop 5 Done
See what a 30 asks that a 10 does not
You can tell a question that needs a paper from one that needs a paragraph.
Released by College Board with its scores, so no one in your class wrote either one.
The 30, on orthopedic surgeon burnout: one focus. A place. A profession. Three named groups of perspectives.
The 10: "How can the government's role in shaping U.S. food safety standards help the food industry?" Two subjects. No group of people. An answer already assumed.
A subject-level question produces this no matter how hard you work on the paper.
Stop 6 Done
Choose a lens that sees something different
You can name what your lens puts in focus that your teammates' lenses cannot.
A lens is the angle you look through. Each of you takes a different one of the eleven: the IRR asks every member to investigate their own lens on the team question.
Two people on the same lens means two papers that see the same thing and a presentation with less to put in conversation.
Under your name on your team slide, write one line: what your lens puts in focus that your teammates' lenses cannot.
Stop 7 Done
Run the five tests
You can score your own question the way the judges will, and know which line needs work.
Five tests, and every one should be a yes: Open-Ended, Specific, Debatable, Researchable, Interesting.
Interesting is a skill, not luck. Four moves make a question yours: the specific noun, the only-you detail, the tension, the stranger test.
Score it on five lines, each 0, 1, or 2: one clear question; specific; debatable, with stakes; lenses that divide it; researchable, and yours.
Stop 8 Done
Name who could act on it
You can say who would do something differently with what you find, which is what makes it a research question.
Underneath all five tests sits the tie-breaker question: given this research, who would actually do something differently? If you cannot name that person, the question is still too vague.
It goes on the team slide as one line: who could act on this. Name the stakeholder and what they could do differently with what you find.
Then say it out loud: who is affected, who could do something differently with your findings, and why it is researchable.
For the workshop
What's next
Next in the year: TMP: Team Multimedia Presentation.