• Analysis of an Issue (30-minute time limit)
• Analysis of an Argument (30-minute time limit)

These two sections share three features in common:

1. You’ll use the same built-in word processor for each.
2. Your time limit for composing each essay is 30 minutes.
3. Most of the scoring criteria are the same.

But in terms of the ideas and analysis involved in the two essays—they’re entirely different. The Issue section involves a one- or two-sentence statement, which is an opinion on a topic of general intellectual interest. Your task is to adopt a position on the issue—indicating the degree to which you agree or disagree with the statement—then defend your position with reasons and supporting examples. Your ideas are not evaluated based on their correctness, because there is no right or wrong answer. It’s like a political debate, in which you try to convince the reader that your position on the issue is the preferable one.

Your task in the Argument essay is entirely different. In this essay you’ll critique a paragraph-length argument, pointing out problems with the evidence and line of reasoning used to draw a conclusion. The Argument essay is an exercise in critical thinking—very much like the Critical Reasoning questions in the GMAT Verbal section, but in essay form.

As for which task is more difficult, I personally find the Issue task far more difficult, because it’s very open-ended; just deciding what to say and how to organize your thoughts I find very challenging. I’m more comfortable with the Argument task because it’s cut-and-dried: you identify reasoning errors and discuss them. But most test-takers find the Argument essay more difficult; so I think it’s a very individual matter.

1. Content—the strength, relevance, and persuasiveness of your ideas (and supporting examples)
2. Organization—how clearly your ideas flow and connect together from one to the next
3. Language—your facility with the vocabulary of the English language
4. Mechanics—grammar, syntax (sentence structure), spelling, and so forth

None of these four areas is most important per se. The testing service instructs the readers to evaluate GMAT essays holistically—to look at an essay as a complete package, without undue emphasis on any single criterion. So an essay that demonstrates competency in all four areas will probably earn a higher score than an essay that contains brilliant ideas but rambles incoherently from one awkward sentence to the next.

It might be useful here to draw an analogy to the scoring system for the multiple-choice sections of the GMAT. The scoring system for those two sections accounts for the range of cognitive abilities covered among your correct responses—so all else being equal between two test-takers, the one who demonstrates a broader set of skills will score higher. The same goes for the GMAT essays, even though it’s humans who are evaluating the essays, and no mathematical formulas are employed in the essay-scoring process.

E-Rater obviously can’t evaluate your ideas or how well you’ve organized those ideas. But test-takers must not assume that content should be of secondary concern to mechanics in composing GMAT essays. The best way to think of E-Rater’s role is as a way for the testing service to flag an errant score awarded by a human reader. If E-Rater’s score for an essay differs from the human reader’s score by more than one point (on the 6-point scale), a second human reader will read and grade that essay, and the final score for that essay will be the average of the two human readers’ scores. Thus the testing service’s use of E-Rater should simply not enter into a test-taker’s strategy when it comes to composing GMAT essays.

GMAT readers will pay far more attention to your diction—how you use words—than to how you’ve spelled those words. And don’t think for a second that the GMAT readers won’t notice poor diction; Since E-Rater cannot detect most kinds of diction errors, the human readers will be looking closely for two types of diction errors:

• Improper word choice—for example, the use of "between" where "among" is proper, or vice versa
• Improper word usage—the use of vocabulary in context that shows that you misunderstand the word’s meaning

No matter how impressive a GMAT essay might be otherwise, if it contains frequent word-choice and usage errors it’s unlikely to earn a score of 6—or even 5.

One of the most common GMAT-essay missteps, especially in the Issue essay, is to conclude with a cute or clever quote or pithy remark. For example, many of the Issue topics relate to business ethics, and GMAT readers encounter many, many essays about such topics that conclude with the following sorts of remarks:

Big mistake! Last-minute, so-called "brilliant" keystrokes of genius such as these will make a distinctly negative final impression on the reader, who is looking for persuasive, insightful ideas—not banality.

Avoid puns and sarcasm as well. For instance, my sarcastic use of the word "brilliant" to describe pithy concluding sentences would be entirely inappropriate for a GMAT essay.

1. In each paragraph you discuss a distinct reason for your agreement (or disagreement) with the stated opinion.
2. You begin by discussing the strengths, or pros, of the stated opinion (indicating each reason in a separate paragraph), then discuss its problems, or cons (again, one per paragraph).

With either template, in each paragraph you should support your main point with persuasive and relevant examples and sound reasoning. And both templates should incorporate a brief introductory paragraph and a brief concluding, or summary, paragraph.

For the Argument essay, developing and implementing an organizational template is more straightforward. In each paragraph you discuss a distinct problem with the argument. (Most such problems have to do with unsubstantiated assumptions that are needed in order for the argument’s conclusion to be readily inferable.) And each paragraph should connect logically from one to the next. This usually isn’t a problem; in most cases, you can just discuss the problems in the order they arise in the argument.

Beyond these basic organizational approaches, though, I thinks it’s dangerous to try to create a preset structure for your essays—especially some sort of fill-in-the-blank template. This approach doesn’t allow for enough flexibility, and your essay can easily come off as canned or awkward. Trust me: GMAT readers know when a test-taker is relying on form over substance, and the readers won’t hesitate to lower your score accordingly.

Rhetorical phrases are designed to persuade—to aid you in arguing for one position over another in a debate. So they are especially germane to the Issue essay. Here are a few that I’ve used over and over in my Issue essays:

In order to develop a useful arsenal of transition and rhetorical phrases, I suggest going through the essays in my book, highlighting these phrases as you go. Then begin to incorporate them into your practice essays. I’m not suggesting that test-takers limit themselves to the phrases that I’ve used. You can adopt your own phrases to fit your overall style. In any event, be sure these phrases fit the grammatical and substantive context in which you use them. As I’ve already mentioned, GMAT readers can immediately spot form over substance, and will lower your score accordingly.

Besides, with the growing number of foreign applicants to U.S. B-schools, writing and verbal skills are becoming an even more important factor for B-schools in the admissions decision. Why not the contrary, so as not to discriminate based on nationality of ethnicity? Think about it. If the B-schools respond to this trend by placing less emphasis on English communication skills, the admission process would be reduced to seeking the best mathematicians. And strong quantitative skills is only a small part of what successful MBA students and success in business management require.