If you need to write GRE issue essay, you need to use a perfect-scoring GRE sample essay as a model. This doesn’t mean plagiarizing sentences or the entire essay. It is against the GRE code of conduct, and the test could be disqualified. Note that there are prompts, so it is not likely that you will be able to use the essays in the exact same way.
The best thing to do is to incorporate the features which are highlighted in the analysis below.
For example, if you struggle with connecting your ideas in paragraphs, see some GRE essay examples of the logical connections in this guide, and see how they fit in the context of the essay. When you do this, you can replicate the successful connections between the ideas in your practice essay.
Another way to use the GRE writing examples is with essay grading rubrics. This helps fish out your weaknesses in writing so you can work on them. Begin with the rubrics that are for the argument and issue tasks. The next step is to identify the criteria that are tougher for you to handle. If you fail to articulate your weakest spot properly, you can narrow down the rubric area that seems more difficult to handle.
After identifying the general area from the sample GRE essays, read the GRE writing samples and analysis in this guide to find real instances of the rubric criteria.
How To Write GRE Essays
Sample issue essay on technology and human ingenuity
Some GRE issue essay examples are written in response to a prompt like “Analyze an Issue.” For instance:
Since many people rely on technology to ease their lives, their ability to think for themselves must deteriorate.
Be sure to deliberate the extent to which you disagree or agree with this statement while explaining your reasoning for your position. To develop and support your position, consider ways the statement may or may not be true, and explain how your considerations are shaped by your position.
The essay on this issue prompt agrees that instead of hindering your abilities to think for yourself, technology spurs humanity to achieve greater things.
In our GRE analytical writing sample, you will find different ways the essay meets the rubric criteria for a GRE essay for a perfect scoring in your issue essay. The position of the author is that rather than fearing the new technology, it should be embraced. This is articulated in the course of the essay and ends in the conclusion of the essay with a thesis statement. Here is an outline of the author’s expression in the thesis all through the essay.
GRE Essay Outline
First paragraph: the author acknowledges that technology has indeed revolutionized the world.
Second paragraph: the author throws more light on the statement in the prompt.
Third paragraph: the author revisits the reasoning discussed in the second paragraph, stating that the reliance on technology doesn’t necessarily impede the creativity that marks the human race.
Fourth paragraph: the author pushes her counterclaim a step further and states that technology frees human imagination.
Fifth paragraph: the author develops the idea from the fourth paragraph stating that when humans increase reliance on technology, they can achieve impossible goals.
Sixth paragraph: this paragraph is the final one, which concludes the essay with an articulated thesis. It sums up all that was written before that there isn’t any need to not show interest in new things. Instead, embrace the possibilities that this new technology brings for new avenues of imagination.
The straightforward explanations of the author’s thinking and logic enhances the clarity of her position. The nuanced content of the idea demonstrates insight into the matter.
GRE Essay Template: Demonstrating Mastery On Perfect Scoring Issue Essay
The next thing a perfect scoring issue essay has to demonstrate a mastery of is the development of the position via persuasive and compelling examples of reasoning. The essay’s author accomplishes the task by giving examples that support all her ideas. This explains the content as well as the examples that support her position.
Consider this example from the fifth paragraph:
By increasing human reliance on technology, goals which seem impossible can be achieved. Think about how people from the late 20th century saw the elimination of smallpox. The disease ravaged the human race for a long time, and with vaccines, a new technology, humans were able to see a world free of a dreadful disease. With technology, battle plans have been drawn out, and individuals were able to target smallpox systematically and eradicate it.
In the example, the author starts by laying out the key idea for discussion, which is that impossible things can be gotten when people rely more on technology. She supports the idea with examples of the problem of smallpox, as well as the steps that were taken to eradicate it.
How To Write A GRE Argument Essay
One good thing about the way the reasoning of the author is explained with examples is the precision and concision which she used to pass her message across. Instead of going into a discussion about how much damage smallpox can cause or discussing vague issues about how diseases are solved by vaccines, the author opts for a specific example and picks out only details that are relevant to the argument.
Such precise writing only takes long practice, but you must be able to sum up your example as well as the reason in a few sentences if you wish to score high in your GRE issue essay.
Logical connections, focus, and organization are required for a perfect-scoring essay. Using the argument essay GRE sample, the author achieves the organization as well as focus by linking ideas between the paragraphs and within the paragraphs. There are some other ways the author transitions between the fourth paragraph’s end and the start of the fifth paragraph.
For instance:
The unlikely marriage of medicine and economics has healed hyperinflation, tense environments from eastern Europe to South America.
The example provides hope in how this new technology offers hope to the future of humans. When we increase our reliance on technology, we can achieve all the impossible goals.
The author links both paragraphs by starting the discussion of the fourth paragraph with the ways that human imagination has been expanded by technology with the fifth paragraph exploring how the example has led to gaining formerly impossible things. The smooth transition between the paragraphs is done by presenting the next paragraph’s content as a logical progression that was discussed by using language, which connects both on a superficial level.
The author keeps her writing cohesive and focused by keeping her paragraphs tightly linked on a deeper level and surface level of content.
For a perfect-scoring essay, you need one last quality. This one ensures that you demonstrate your flow in writing and precision of language. The author of the sample fulfills this by using language to economically and precisely pass a message throughout her essay. Consider this example of effective and precise use of languages in her essay:
The disease ravaged the human race for a long time, and with vaccines, a new technology, humans were able to see a world free of a dreadful disease.
In the excerpt, the author makes use of ravaged, an evocative word that shows the extent of the problem which is solved by technology. It reinforces that the problem that was considered impossible to handle in the past. The phrase “able to see a world” in the sentence ties the example to the former paragraph.
Even though there are a few errors in the excerpt, they do not change the meaning of the words of the author. It does not change the overall effectiveness of the language of the author.
Second Issue Essay: Competition Vs. Cooperation
(this sample is written in response to a prompt about the values of competition vs. cooperation):
“The best way for society to prepare young ones for leadership in different fields or the government is by instilling a sense of cooperation in them rather than competition.”
The sample essay issue, which is written in response to the topic above, takes a stance that competition is not a preferable value for young people to learn, but cooperation will take them a long way in preparation for government.
Just like the previous GRE essay sample, consider how the essay meets the criteria for a perfect-scoring essay of stating a clear position. The author fulfills the requirement with a clear statement in the thesis in the last line of the first paragraph.
“I agree that the best way for young people to be prepared for leadership is to have a sense of cooperation instilled in them.”
The author reiterates the clear position with the sentences in his concluding part:
“Becoming president of the country or the managing director of an important company might require toughness, but when you are there, you must learn people skills and diplomacy. These skills are difficult to learn, but if you lack them, then you will not last long as a leader.”
For a perfect issue essay score, having a clear position is not enough. The position must also throw more light on the issue. The author of the essay also accomplishes the second part by picking a two-pronged approach to answer the question of the essay. Instead of explaining how cooperativeness may lead to positive outcomes in the workforce an government, the author explains how such competitiveness can lead to negative outcomes.
The author’s position is clear as it states that cooperation is good, and competition is bad in the simplest ways possible.
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