Studying the gre 3 pps

Once again, to formulate a good thesis, you must think critically about the issues the claim raises to formu-late the position you can best support in your essay.. These types of questi

The issues you will address on this task on the Analytical Writing section are sometimes more complex than the previous example No matter how complex the issue, when you formulate your thesis statement, you must still clearly and succinctly state your position, and mention any conditions of that position Then, you will need to break down the claim, analyzing it closely and addressing any questions the claim raises

For example, if you were to formulate an argument for the claim mentioned previously, you might think

of the following questions to analyze the claim and formulate your thesis:

■ What makes a good teacher?

■ Is getting students’ attention the most important quality of a teacher?

■ What are some other significant qualities that a good teacher possesses?

■ Which quality in a teacher is essential to you? Why?

■ What have your past experiences with teachers shown you about what it takes to be a good teacher?

■ Do you know any teachers personally? What would they say about this claim?

■ Would someone who is a teacher have a different perspective than I have?

■ Are there other people, such as parents, other students, members of the school board, or principals, who might have a different perspective than I have?

■ What might people in different parts of the world say about the most important quality of teachers?

Once again, to formulate a good thesis, you must think critically about the issues the claim raises to

formu-late the position you can best support in your essay These types of questions will not only help you shape your own position on the topic, but they might also help you think of examples that will support your claim

S TEP T WO : G ATHERING Y OUR S UPPORT

Just as you had a head start formulating your thesis statement when you chose your claim and decided on your position, you probably have a good idea of what pieces of evidence you want to present to your

audi-ence You want to choose the examples and reasons you determine will best support your position So think

back to the questions you answered when you were choosing your claim and deciding which position to take:

■ Can I think of experiences from my own life or the lives of my friends and family that will add to my position?

■ Can I think of newspaper or magazine articles I have read that could help me support my case?

■ Are these examples really relevant and convincing?

■ What are some other positions on this issue?

■ How can I logically address opposing views?

■ What came to mind when I was choosing the prompt and deciding which position to take?

These questions will help you brainstorm and elaborate on ways to support your claim

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As you gather and jot down your evidence, you can organize your evidence into two areas: evidence that sup-ports the topic and evidence that supsup-ports an opposing viewpoint If you find that the evidence for an alternate viewpoint is stronger than the claim you originally made, you might want to consider changing your position You may change your position completely, or you may decide to apply a more complex or a more limited set

of conditions than the claim originally outlined using evidence from both the supporting and opposing

per-spectives to support your new position Remember, there is no “right” answer to the Issue task; it is vital that you take the position you feel that you can support the best

about your own experiences in the classroom in relation to what makes a good teacher will guide your posi-tion Brainstorm a list of experiences that will support your posiposi-tion For now, simply jot down everything that comes to mind

Next, you will need to narrow down all those experiences; your job is to come up with the most com-pelling experiences to support your position Thinking about some opposing viewpoints will help you choose the best evidence—both to support your claim and to refute the opposing claim

S TEP T HREE : C REATE A D ETAILED O UTLINE

Now that you know what you are going to say, you have to decide how you are going to say it It will make the actual writing part of this task go much more smoothly, as much of the thinking will already have been done You will be able to put your ideas into a logical, effective order and then fill in any gaps in your support Even if you are not planning to write your essay in a traditional five-paragraph format, it is best to cre-ate your outline according to the basic structure of a traditional essay:

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Your outline, however, will be much more detailed For example, you will add your thesis statement, or posi-tion, to the introduction portion of the outline, and the body will be broken down into all the examples and reasons you have chosen to support your thesis

These reasons and ideas will make up your supporting paragraphs, so when you have placed everything into outline form you will be able to see if you are missing any evidence or support To help develop these vital supporting paragraphs, expand your outline For each main supporting idea—or topic sentence—list

at least one specific detail or example to support that idea

For example, your detailed outline for the topic above might look something like the following:

1 Introduction:

Thesis: Contrary to popular belief, the most important quality of a teacher is not his or her

ability to interest students in the subject he or she is teaching; equally essential are other abil-ities, such as the ability to listen to and provide encouragement and support for each individ-ual in the classroom

2 Evidence: Ms S., my first-grade teacher—she paid attention to each child’s individual needs, while also

keeping us engaged in academic matters

a Lots of kids learned to read in their own time, at their own level.

b They were accepted for who they were no matter at what level they were reading.

c We had lots of meetings where she got to hear from each of us what we were thinking about She

probed us with questions that would expand our thinking

3 Evidence: Mr L., my high school history teacher—he helped each of us individually connect to our

history in our exploration of the Vietnam War

a While all his assignments really interested us and his enthusiasm for exploration of the topic was

catching, it was more his understanding of what would make this subject come alive for a group of

high school students, understanding what we needed, that made him such a unique and wonderful

teacher

b Assignment to interview people we knew personally who had firsthand experience with war, even if

it was being a conscientious objector Made this war that happened before we were born seem more present and real

c Shared his personal experience during that time so that we understood him better, and as a result,

we all shared our ideas freely with him

4 Conclusion: These were teachers who were widely recognized in my school community as good

teach-ers While I loved to go to school every day to see what I was learning next because they made learning interesting, it was also their abilities to understand what their students needed and to support and encourage our learning that made them good teachers

Your outline might look different depending on the number of examples (the amount of evidence) you choose to include as support for your position The critical thing is that you get your ideas out, so that you can see where you might be missing support, or even if you have too much or irrelevant support The more detailed your outline, the easier it will be for you to fill in the blanks as you write your essay

That said, you do have a limited amount of time to complete your entire essay, and you should proba-bly spend no more than one-fourth of your time planning the essay Remember that you will have already done a lot of brainstorming on the topic as you were choosing your topic and deciding on your position The brainstorming you have already done will make your outline flow more smoothly and quickly If it helps, you

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The tone you take in persuasive writing is essential Establish your credibility by writing in a rational, thought-ful, and logical manner You must clearly present your point of view to those who both agree and disagree with you In addition, you must defend your position against those who disagree with you You should have already brainstormed reasons why people might not agree with your perspective, so be sure to acknowledge and refute those reasons in your essay This is when it is critical to write in an even-handed tone You want to sound log-ical and rational, as if you have carefully and thoughtfully considered other points of view With the reasons and examples you have uncovered, the support for your claim is the strongest, so you have decided to take this position

With 45 minutes to complete this task, the scope of your essay will be limited So while it is vital to include as many details and as much support as possible, remember that you have a limited time to write Your outline should help you gauge the scope of your essay before you start writing If it seems like you have too much in your outline, try to pick the best examples to support your position You can always add more if you find that you have time

Like choosing your topic and taking a position, creating a good outline takes practice As you complete the practice prompts at the end of this chapter, be sure to practice making an outline The more practice you have under your belt, the more automatic these steps will seem when it is time to take the official GRE Gen-eral Test

Writing Your Essay

You already have lots of practice writing essays, so this is where you get into the details about how to actu-ally construct your essay What is most essential to remember when you are working on the Issue task is that you are writing a persuasive piece Ask yourself these questions:

■ Who is my audience?

■ Of what do I want to convince them?

■ How do I want to say that?

■ Am I maintaining my position consistently throughout my writing?

When you write a persuasive piece, your audience is not someone who necessarily agrees with your

posi-tion Your job is to convince people, sometimes people who do not necessarily see the position from the same point of view, that your position is logical, well reasoned, and thoroughly developed You will want to clearly state your position at the outset of your essay, and then follow through by logically providing examples and reasons that support your point of view

Keep this checklist in mind as you write your essay It should help you focus your writing and keep you

on track

■ Use an interesting lead-in sentence to open your essay—if you can think of one fast You only have a limited amount of time, so don’t waste precious moments coming up with something clever It’s better

to get writing You can always add a catchy opening later

■ Make sure you have clear topic sentences that refer explicitly to your position, or thesis

■ Support your topic with facts and examples from a combination of sources: personal experiences, experiences of friends, family, or other people you know, and facts, data, or expert opinion (from read-ings or lectures)

■ Acknowledge other points of view in a reasonable, logical manner, clearly explaining why your position

is more persuasive

■ Conclude the essay in an effective way—summarize your main points, demonstrating that you have proven your position and drawing all that you have written about together Think about why this issue

is significant and address its significance in your conclusion Think about the questions this issue raises, and address the implications of the issue in your conclusion

Remember, the purpose of the Issue task is to thoroughly examine the issue and come up with a position on that issue The scorers will be looking at how well you use examples to develop and support your argument

In addition, they are looking at your organization, language, flow, and word choice—in other words, how well you can sustain and organize the focus of your writing while connecting your ideas logically and fluently

Revising and Editing

In the 45 minutes you have to put your essay together, you should leave some time to go over your writing, briefly revising and editing your work You won’t have time to polish and perfect your work the way you would

in an untimed writing assignment; however, it is essential not to skip this crucial step

When you have finished your draft, quickly and carefully read over your essay and make changes to improve it, focusing on improving the content and style of your writing When you revise, you concentrate

on the big picture: your ideas and how you have organized and presented them in your essay Of course, you will want to check for obvious grammatical, mechanical, and usage errors, but you can still get a top score and have minor errors in your writing The scorers understand that you have a short amount of time to plan, write, and revise your piece, so make sure that you have thought critically about the topic and that your posi-tion was clearly stated—that you have provided adequate support, addressed alternate points of view, and con-nected your ideas logically while maintaining good focus

You don’t have time to rewrite paragraphs or add new ones, but you should have a couple of minutes

to change word order, adjust word choice, and correct obvious grammatical and mechanical mistakes This final polishing step can help make your ideas come across much more clearly for your readers, strengthen your

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Assessing Your Writing

Compare your essay to the following rubric, adapted from the official Present Your Perspective on an Issue

rubric, to assess your writing The rubric lists the criteria by which each official GRE reader assesses your work

An essay with a score of 6 expertly develops and supports a compelling argument on a given topic The posi-tion is skillfully analyzed and written

The essay at this level includes the following attributes:

■ a perceptive position on the issue

■ compelling and persuasive examples and reasons

■ a well-developed, well-focused, and well-organized analysis and point of view

■ ideas that logically connect to each other

■ effective vocabulary, word choice, and sentence variety, communicating ideas fluently and precisely

■ adept skill at using the conventions (i.e., grammar, usage, and mechanics) of standard written English, perhaps with minor errors

An essay with a score of 5 is thoughtful and well developed It analyzes the issue and presents a position clearly and effectively using good examples

The essay at this level includes the following attributes:

■ a thoughtful position on the issue

■ a well-developed position using logically sound reasons and/or compelling examples

■ generally good organization and focus

■ clearly connected and communicated ideas

■ appropriate vocabulary and sentence variety

■ skillful use of the conventions of standard written English, perhaps with minor errors

An essay with a score of 4 reveals a proficient analysis of the issue The writing sufficiently articulates meaning The essay at this level includes the following attributes:

■ a clear, developed position on the issue

■ relevant reasons and/or examples

■ sufficient focus and organization

■ ideas are usually presented acceptably clear

■ general control of the conventions of standard written English, with some errors