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The following GRE writing tips apply specifically to the Argument essay — one of two essays you'll write during the Analytical Writing portion of the GRE:- Spend 4-5 minutes brainstorming and jotting down the logical problems you intend to identify and discuss in your essay. Then number these problems — from most serious to least serious. Present them in that order in your essay.
- Each argument in the official test bank contains 3-5 major logical fallacies or other logical problems. (That's how the test-makers design them.) To score high you must identify and discuss each major logical problem. Here are a few of the types that appear frequently among the arguments in the official test bank:
.- Drawing an unfair analogy (ignoring relevant dissimilarities between two things when comparing them)
- Generalizing from particulars (relying on a small number of particular cases — too small to reach a reliable general conclusion)
- Confusing chronology with causation (because one event occurs after another, the earlier event caused the later event)
- Go for breadth, not depth. Try to cover every major logical problem with the argument. Don't dwell on one point! (This is the #1 essay blunder committed by GRE test-takers.) As a rule of thumb you shouldn't devote more than 3 or 4 sentences to discussing any one point of your critique.
- Avoid Intro-itis. Do NOT begin your essay by rehashing the argument that you intend to critique. A brief introduction — in which you indicate the thrust of the argument and that it is problematic for several reasons — will suffice. Your time is far better spent delving directly into your critique of the argument. (Just as with the Issue essay, intro-itis will wave a "red flag" to the GRE readers who will assume from the outset that you lack ideas of your own.)
- In addition to asking you to identify major logical problems with the argument, the Argument prompt will suggest (although not require) that you discuss
.- what additional information is needed to better evaluate the argument, and/or
- what additional evidence (facts) would serve to strengthen the argument.
Your essay's final paragraph is a good place to include these points.
Also see these related topics:
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