AP English Language · Reasoning and organization

Which sentence, if added after Sentence 3, would best connect the third paragraph to the draft's broader claim?

Draft: recording uncertainty in field notebooks

1A field notebook is often treated as a place to store observations after they have been made. That description is incomplete. [Sentence 1] A useful notebook records not only what an observer thinks happened but also where the observer hesitated.

2Consider a student identifying birds during a wetland survey. Writing "three marsh wrens" produces a clean data point. Writing "three small brown birds, probably marsh wrens; calls heard, markings partly obscured by reeds" preserves more information. [Sentence 2] The second entry may look less certain, but it gives a later reader evidence for evaluating the identification.

3Uncertainty can also reveal patterns in the method itself. If several questionable observations occur near dusk, the problem may be light. If uncertainty clusters around one species pair, the identification guide may need a clearer comparison. [Sentence 3] Notes about doubt can therefore improve both individual observations and the design of later fieldwork.

4[Sentence 4] Scientific records become more trustworthy when they show the limits of observation as carefully as they show the observations themselves.

Original draft written for this examination.
Which sentence, if added after Sentence 3, would best connect the third paragraph to the draft's broader claim?

Answer and explanation

Answer: D: Recorded uncertainty is therefore data about the observation process as well as about the object being observed.

Paragraph 3 argues that clusters of doubt reveal problems with light or identification guides, so doubt is information about the method. A sentence added after Sentence 3 should tie that to the draft's broader claim, and D does: recorded uncertainty is data about the observation process as well as the object observed. Choice A is true but merely mentions wetlands. Choice B, about pencils and wet pages, is a practical aside unrelated to the argument. Choice C discusses notebook sizes and bindings, which concern equipment, not the claim that recorded uncertainty improves scientific evidence.

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