The Advanced Guide

to
GRE Analytical Writing
71 Mind-Blowing Tips,
Techniques, and Strategies
to Score a Perfect 6.0 on the AWA

Written By Jitta & Sachin

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to GRE
 Analytical Writing MENU

“Getting to know everything about

the writing section on the GRE will
not only fetch you a perfect score,
but also help you become a better
writer”

…
Getting a 99 percentile score on either of
Verbal and Quant sections on the GRE
requires several weeks, if not months, of
diligence, patience, practice, and smart prep.
But with only a fraction of the hard work you
put in for Math and Verbal, and just a few
days of practice, you can easily get a 99
percentile score on the AWA section. Plus,
getting a 6.0 on the AWA isn’t a regular
occurrence, and only about 8000 test takers
around the world do it every year. So, if you
can be one of those guys, you will be famous
not only among your friends, but also among
the admissions committees.

Unfortunately, the AWA is the most neglected

section on the GRE. Test takers across the
world believe that they can easily master
AWA in a day or two. And look at what they
end up with: The average AWA score of a GRE
test taker worldwide is a mere 4.0, and the
average AWA score of an Indian test taker is
even lower. Now, to most Indian students,
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getting a 4.0 on the AWA might seem like an
impressive feat. But in reality, 4.0 is
considered just average in most countries.
And on top of it, getting a 6.0 isn’t really as
tough as it seems. It is only that you don’t
know how.

If you are looking to score a perfect 6.0 on the

AWA section, you will have to be a lot more
planned than most other students. Just as
with the Verbal and Quant sections, mastering
the essay section on the GRE requires the
same amount of confidence, persistence, and
practice. And in addition to all that, you will
also need a solid guide that can help you with
all the strategies and tips. You will need an
AWA Bible, so to speak.

But sadly enough, there isn’t much useful

information on the internet about this
frequently neglected section. Yes, there are
some good articles and sample 6.0 essays that
you can get with a simple Google search, but
nowhere on the internet is a definitive guide
to help you write a 6.0 essay on the GRE. And
that is why, we at CrunchPrep, decided to
provide you with a complete, advanced guide
to scoring a perfect 6.0 on the AWA. And hey,
don’t blame us if the 6.0 percentile goes down
from 99 to 80 soon.
What is the AWA all about? MENU

The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)

portion of the GRE consists of two essays,
each of which you will need to write in 30
minutes or less. The two essays you will see
on the GRE are, Analysis of an Issue and
Analysis of an Argument. These two essays
will always come first on your GRE test, no
matter what. You cannot simply skip off AWA,
move on to the other sections, and come back
later. AWA itself is a separate section, and
only after you finish writing the two essays
can you move on further.

Despite what most students say, you should

remember that the AWA only tests how well
you can write an essay, and hence measures
only your writing abilities. Contrary to
popular opinion, the AWA does not analyze
your thought process. As long as your essay
sounds logical, writing ability is all it
measures. We will be discussing more about
this in the upcoming sections.

How important is the AWA?

It is a widely known fact that your AWA essay
score is not as important as your composite
math and verbal score on the GRE, and
getting a 5.0 or 6.0 won’t make or break your
chances of getting admitted to the university
of your choice. Graduate school admissions
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officers only bother about your AWA score, if
it is too low, or significantly lower than their
usual class average. Yes, a poor score on the
AWA can definitely send up a red flag, and the
admissions committee will certainly think
twice before letting you in. Sometimes, they
even go to the extent of rereading your SOP
and LORs, to find out if they were actually
written by you or someone else. So, it is rather
safe to say that the AWA score is an important
enough factor when it comes to admissions.

What is the score range for AWA?

The AWA score ranges between 0 and 6.0,
with 0.5 point increments. But what exactly
does it mean to get a 6.0, or 4.0 or for that
matter, a 0 on the AWA? Well, the scoring
system is designed in a way that your
responses to each of these essay questions are
scored on a 6-point scale, with 6 being the
highest score and 1, the lowest. Given below,
are the parameters that ETS looks at when
grading your AWA essays:

6.0 – Outstanding:

A well-articulated critique of the

argument/issue, demonstrating mastery of
effective writing, and displaying the following
characteristics:
 Clearly identifies and analyzes the most important
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features of the argument with deep insight.

Develops cogent ideas, organizes them logically,

and connects them properly without sudden

transitions.

Supports the main points of the critique strongly.

Demonstrates superior control of the English

language, including diction, sentence formation,

spelling, grammar and syntactic variety used in

standard written English.

Few to no flaws in the essay.

5.0 – Strong

A well-developed critique of the argument,

demonstrating good control of writing, and
displaying the following characteristics:

Clearly identifies the important features of the

argument and analyzes them thoughtfully.

Develops ideas clearly, and connects them logically,

with appropriate transitions.

Gives a very sensible support to the main points of

the critique.

Has clear control of language, including diction

and syntactic variety

May have minor flaws like spelling errors, but no

major flaws.
4.0 – Adequate
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A satisfactory critique of the given argument,

demonstrating decent control of writing, and
displaying the following characteristics:

Capable of Identifying and analyzing the main

features of the argument.

Develops and organizes ideas satisfactorily, but

some important connections and transitions may

be missing.

Supports the main points of the critique.

Demonstrates sufficient control of language, but

may lack syntactic variety.

May have many minor flaws or some major flaws.

3.0 – Limited

A satisfactory essay with clearly flawed

critique of the argument, demonstrating little
control of the elements of writing, and
displaying the following characteristics:

Does not identify or analyze many of the important

features of the argument.

Has limited logical development and no proper

organization of ideas.

Offers support of little relevance and value for

points of the critique

 Uses language imprecisely and/or lacks sentence
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variety

Contains occasional major errors or frequent

minor errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics

2.0 – Seriously Flawed

An unsatisfactory essay with serious

weakness in analytical writing skills, and
displaying the following characteristics:

Demonstrates no understanding of the main

features of the argument.

Almost no analyses of the main points have been

made.

Does not develop any ideas or is disorganized

Provides nil to few relevant evidences.

Has frequent serious problems in the use of

language, grammar, spelling, and sentence

structure.

1.0 – Fundamentally Deficient

An essay full of fundamental deficiencies in

analytical writing skills, and displaying the
following characteristics:

Provides little to no evidence of the ability to

understand and analyze the main idea.

 Failure to develop an organized response.
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Contains severe and persistent errors in language

and sentence structure

Has an unusually frequent pattern of errors in

grammar, usage, and logic.

A totally incoherent response.

0.0 – Unscorable

A paper that is totally illegible or obviously

not written on the assigned topic. A score of
zero is given to responses that come under
one of the following cases:

The responses are off topic.

The responses are written in a language other than

English.

The responses are a mere copy of the given topic.

The responses consist only of random keystroke

characters.

No response.

So, it is safe to say that if you write at least a

few sentences in English, you will get a score
of 1.0. But rest assured, no university under
the sun will accept a score that low.
How is the AWA graded? MENU

Each of your AWA essays is scored on a scale

of 0 to 6. Two readers will read your Issue
essay and assign it a deserving score and two
different readers will read your Argument
essay and assign it a score. Each grader will
award a 6.0 to the top essays and scores of 0
are reserved for essays written on topics
other than the one assigned or written in a
foreign language. The graders spend about 30
seconds to 2 minutes on each essay, and give
it a score based on pre-defined evaluation
metrics such as the overall quality of your
critical thinking and writing, as mentioned
previously. The graders who evaluate the
responses are college and university faculty
members from various subject matter areas,
including higher education.

Once the readers finish grading your essay,

the two scores will be averaged to arrive at a
final AWA score. If the grades given by the
two readers differ by more than a point, a
third, highly experienced grader is brought in
to resolve the discrepancy (i.e., determine
your final score for that essay).

For each essay, your final score is the average

of the scores assigned by the two readers or
the adjusted score assigned by the third
reader.
Here’s how a typical Analytical Writing score
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might be derived:

If you earned scores of 6 and 5 on the

Analysis of an Issue, then your final score for
the Issue essay would be the average of these
two i.e., (6 + 5) /2 which equals to 5.5 and if
you earned scores of 4 and 5 on the Analysis
of an Argument, your final score on the
Argument essay would be (4 + 5) /2 which
equals to 4.5.

Your final AWA score will be the average of

your scores on Issue and Argument essays i.e.,
(5.5 + 4.5) /2 which equals to 5, which will be
your final AWA score.

It should be noted that though your AWA

scores range from 0 – 6, about 90 percent of
all scores fall between 2 and 5. The average
score for the AWA section for all the test
takers so far is around 4.2.

Your Analytical Writing Assessment scores

are computed and reported separately from
the multiple-choice sections of the test and
have no effect on your Verbal, Quantitative,
or Total scores. Your score report however
will not include copies of your responses;
only scores are sent. You will receive your
essay scores approximately 10-15 days after
your test date.
What do graders look for in your MENU

AWA essays?
Most students think that essay length the only
important factor when it comes to AWA
scoring. But, in reality, it is not. Of course, it is
one of the most important factors, but it
isn’t the only factor. You will have to take
many other factors into consideration, if you
are looking to get anywhere near the perfect
score. We have complied a list of all the
factors that affect your overall AWA score, so
you can be well prepared, while improving
your writing skills on those lines.

The 7 Elements Graders Look For:

1. Clarity

This is the most important, and also the most

fundamental of all factors that the graders
judge your essays on. The grader should
understand what you are trying to say, by
reading once. This makes their job easier, and
they will understand that if it can be
understood with just a single reading, then
your essay has clarity.

As we discussed earlier, the grader can spend

a maximum of only two minutes per essay,
and it is your duty to make sure your essays
have clearly composed ideas, because more
often than not, graders do not bother to
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reread your essay and waste another couple
of minutes. Consequently, you will end up
with a score much lower than what you
actually deserve.

Ask yourselves these two questions when you

are writing the essays. What are you trying to
say? What’s your main point? These two
questions must have solid answers by the
time the grader finishes reading the essay. If
you think about it, these are the exact same
questions you will have to answer, during
Reading Comprehension. Just like how you
can easily solve a Reading Comprehension
question if you have answers to those two
questions, graders assessing your essay will
also need to find answers to these exact same
questions, if you need a perfect score.
Substance matters more than any other factor
when it comes to your essays. So, make sure
you have solid points, and clear logical
reasoning that can be easily understood.

2. Structure

You should have seen it coming; structure is

the second most important factor on your
essays. The way an article is formatted, has a
massive impact upon its readability. Your
essays should read like a story; something
that can be easily understood, and something
that has a proper structure and organization.
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So, it is important that you break up your
essay into distinct paragraphs, each with its
own meaning and context, while maintaining
a smooth transition between one paragraph
and the next.

This way, every paragraph reads like a

separate story, and the essay graders can
easily scan through your entire response
easily. Plus, since the transitions are smooth,
and there aren’t any sudden twists in your
response, it will make the grader’s job a
whole lot easier.

So, ideally, you should have a structure in

mind before you begin writing the essay. The
general structure is to start with an
introductory paragraph followed by 3-4 body
paragraphs and finish off with a conclusion
paragraph. So, you should make sure that
there are at least 5-6 paragraphs in your
essay, if you want a solid score on the AWA.

3. Sentence Variety

Even though you are writing several

paragraphs on the same topic, you should
ideally avoid writing similar or same
sentences. If you are an avid reader of news,
you get the point. No good writer under the
sun writes two exactly same sentences in a
single essay or article. Consecutive sentences
with the same structure and length can sound
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monotonous and lifeless, and will obviously
bore the reader.

Instead of sounding repetitive and boring, use

sentence style skillfully. But this doesn’t mean
you should rearrange the words, or chance
the voice from passive to active or vice versa.
It simply means that you should use a
different variety of words to mean the same
thing.

For example, if you have already written the

sentence ‘The most important virtue of a
leader is a strong sense of ethics.’, and if you
have to use the same sentence at a later point
in the essay, you should try and rephrase that
same sentence and write something like this:
‘A strong moral framework is paramount for
any leader.’ Get the point?

In this way, you should keep varying the

sentence structures, flow and rhythm by
switching between short and long sentences.
You should also make use of transitional and
signal words to vary sentence openings and
endings.

4. Vocabulary

There has been a longstanding myth among

test takers that the GRE really loves heavy
vocabulary, and using it on your AWA essays
will boost your score. Well, this isn’t true at
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all. We have seen students with exceptional
vocabulary but poor coherence get paltry
AWA scores in the past. And we have seen
students with great essay scores without
using heavy vocabulary.

Like we said earlier, the AWA is not testing

how much vocab you have in your arsenal.
There’s Sentence Equivalence and Text
Completion for that. AWA only tests how
logically you can deduce information and
write a reasonable critique about an issue or
an argument made by someone else. So, don’t
buy those myths. As long as you use sensible
reasoning, proper grammar and as long as
you can defend your point intelligently and
use precise vocabulary to convey meaning
effectively, you should be alright. It is not
needed that you use heavy vocabulary or GRE
words.

5. Language and Grammar

Though officially ETS says you may have

minor errors in the essay copy, that doesn’t
mean you can ignore silly mistakes. Even
though the mistakes or errors do not interfere
with overall meaning and coherence, you
should understand that the time you make
your first error on the essay, the grader will
notice it, and will be more conscious while
reading the rest of the copy. The grader will
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be even more vigilant to see if there are any
visible or obvious blunders that you have
made, and this can have a negative impact on
your AWA score. So, try and make sure your
essay is as spotless as possible, and eliminate
all errors before submitting. Take time to
proofread your essay, once you finish writing
it. Don’t be in a hurry to submit it off and skip
to the next section.

6. Reasoning

Reasoning plays a key role in determining the

overall quality of your essay. You should
always look to include as many logically
compelling reasons as you can to support
your stance. One of the most important
features about a compelling essay is its ability
to convince the reader by means of sound
logical reasoning. Anyone who reads your
response should be totally convinced of your
view point, without having second thoughts.
To be able to write such a compelling and
well-reasoned copy within 30 minutes would
be rather difficult, but you can definitely do it
with a lot of practice.

So ideally, you should be able to connect your

ideas properly to the central theme or idea of
the essay, and convince the reader to agree to
your point of view. If the essay doesn’t sound
logical or reasonable, you will unfortunately
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have to pay the penalty, no matter how long
the essay is.

7. Evidence

In order to make your essay sound reasonable

and logically sound, you will obviously need
to provide sufficient evidences. If you want to
impress the readers, and convince them to
agree to your point of view, you will ideally
want to provide convincing evidence to back
up your thesis. Search for evidences, either
direct or implied, and connect them with the
essay. You can even create some random
examples and evidences, as long as they fit
the bill and don’t sound too random. Develop
examples that cogently reinforce your thesis
is key to a high essay score.

So, those are the 7 most important elements

that graders look for in your essays. Make
sure you have all these things covered in your
essay, and you’re sure to see a perfect score.

Should you skip the AWA section

during practice?
This is probably a question that is on the
minds of many students. Almost half of the
GRE test takers are native English speakers.
And these students tend to neglect practicing
the AWA section at home, because according
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to them, it’s not worth investing time on
something they are very confident about. But,
there are a few vital points that they don’t
realize. We’ve observed what students do
when they practice for the GRE, how their
approaches have affected their scores on test
day, and figured out four reasons as to why
the AWA section is an extremely important
aspect of the GRE exam.

Number 1 Reason Why Practicing GRE AWA

is Important: Inflated Scores During
Practice:

This is the single most important thing to

consider when we talk about the importance
of the essay section. Students normally tend
to skip the essay section when they take
practice tests, so they can directly go to the
first section of Math/Verbal. Though this
might seem like the obvious choice to you,
you should consider the aftereffects before
jumping into conclusions.

Think about it. The GRE is not a typical test

that you encounter at college or elsewhere. It
is a marathon. An intense, 3 hour 45 minute
journey, which obviously you aren’t
accustomed to. Now, if you skip the essay
section during practice, you’ll be forfeiting 60
minutes of the total test time, which means
you are going to have to sit for 2 hours and 45
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minutes only.

This translates into an inflated overall score

during practice, because you are just that
much more active than you will be on test
day. So, you get accustomed to sitting for 2
hours 45 minutes for the test, and your brain
is hardwired to concentrate for that much
time only. But, on test day, you still have two
more sections to finish after you complete 2
hours and 45 minutes.

Do you get the point? It’s that extra one hour

of concentration that requires sudden
attention from your brain, which it sadly isn’t
ready for. This is exactly why thousands of
students score very low on their last two to
three sections. They simply aren’t ready for
the extra time, because their brains feel tired
already. So, if you don’t skip the essay during
practice, you’ll be writing in the exact test
conditions as on test day, thereby training
your brain for the big encounter.

There are a few other important reasons why

you should not skip off AWA during
practice (//crunchprep.com/gre/2014
/gre-essay-section-importance), and we
have discussed them separately.

How Long Should My Essay Be?

The essay graders are aware that you only get
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30 minutes to write each AWA essay and they
also know that you won’t be able to cover
every possible argument, reason and rebuttal.
Hence they do not expect you to write a super
long detailed analysis of the issue or
argument given to you. Remember that most
GRE test takers won’t be able to find time to
cover everything they would like to cover on
the test.

So, how long should your AWA essay be? We

see students wondering about this all the time
and we know you would like to know about it
too. ETS has not spoken out about the ideal
length of an essay, and there is no word on
the word limit as such. But there seems to be
a pattern that appears on GRE sample essays
that come along with the ETS official guide to
the GRE.

When closely observed, there is a significant

increase in the number of words from a 5.0
graded essay and a 6.0 graded essay. The
reality is, longer essay is usually better. To
analyze further on this topic, we have done a
bit of research, and found out an interesting
relation between essay length and the final
score. If you look at the statistics below, you
will have to concur with me. Longer essays
usually score better on every essay topic.
If you are a long-essay fan and insist to pen a
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high scoring AWA essay on the GRE, you
should write anywhere between 500-600
words. Don’t ask us why. The research shows
that’s how it is, and if it true for a sample of
500 students, it must be true on a larger scale
as well.

A column chart with average word count

for essays from 500 students

As you can see, the longer the essay, the

higher the grades. Notice that a 5+ point essay
has length exceeding 500 words. Another
interesting fact is, it seems as if 600 is an
upper limit for word count. If you go beyond
600 words, you can see how the scores go
down. This isn’t surprising, though. Almost no
student on this planet can write a perfect 800
word essay under pressure in 30 minutes. If
someone is shooting for a high word count,
they are surely sacrificing on quality. So, it’s
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safe to say that 500-600 is what you should be
looking at.

If you’d like to know more about the GRE

essay length (//crunchprep.com/gre/2014
/gre-essay-length), we’ve done a separate
post on that. Go check it out now.

Categorization of GRE Essay

Topics
The most fascinating thing about the GRE
essay section is that each and every essay
topic that shows up on the real test is already
published on the official ETS website. This
may sound crazy because giving out the
questions in advance is totally unnatural. By
knowing the topics beforehand, you can
prepare sample responses for all those topics
and on the test day, all you need to do is just
reproduce your sample response. Isn’t that a
great advantage for you? You can get a perfect
6.0 score very easily!

But there’s a catch! You were expecting a few,

aren’t you?

Well, there are close to 200 topics in all – far

too many to practice responses in advance.
Also, practicing each of these topics is not
advisable as it is going to take a lot of time
and effort and there is no point in mugging
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them up. You could as well spend this time on
learning some math or vocabulary. However,
there’s a good news. Just scanning through
these two lists of essay topics will give you an
excellent idea of the types of issues and
arguments that show up on test day.

Now, most of the topics that show up on the

GRE Essay section can be broadly grouped
into five categories. I made things a bit easy
for you and listed those five categories below.
Take a look.

Education

Arts

Government/Politics

Philosophy

Sciences and Technology

So, next time when you practice writing an

essay response, make sure you write at least
an essay from each of these categories.

How do I get ideas for the essay?

This is most likely the second most frequently
asked question in our support mails by
students around the world. It’s because a
large number of issue and argument prompts
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on the official essay pool are hard to
understand correctly. And when you don’t
understand something, how can you write
about that something?

So, what can you do about to solve this

problem? Here are a couple of things you
should work on:

If you were asked to write about a topic from

out of nowhere, you would struggle for ideas.
But when you already know that there could
only be five categories from which your essay
topics can show up, then you can turn the
table in your favor. You should keep a few
related examples for each one of these
categories (i.e. education, arts, politics,
technology, philosophy) as they will be handy
and save you precious time on the test day.

Also, the essay prompts are full of obscure

vocabulary and hence are hard to
comprehend. Since, every essay prompt that
could appear on the GRE is openly accessible
on the official ETS website, you should give
them a read through. While reading, you
should also make note of all the unfamiliar
words and later learn them. Learning these
new words will ensure that you understand
the topic well or at least allow you to take a
very good guess.
How to get your essays graded? MENU

Believe it or not, one of the most frequent

questions that we receive from students
around the world, is how they can get their
essays graded. That is a good question,
actually. Given the fact that there are so many
practice tests for the GRE
(//crunchprep.com/gre/2014/free-
gre-practice-tests) where you get your Math
and Verbal sections graded, there is not even
one practice test in the entire world that can
grade your AWA score for you. If you are
wondering why, it is because it is not at all
easy to grade your essay instantaneously.

Think about it. Even on the test day, you will

only receive your Math and Verbal scores, but
not the AWA score. ETS itself takes about 7-10
days to give you an official report of your
AWA score. It is that difficult to assess an
essay. Plus, it is required that a human grader
reads and grades your essays, if you want an
accurate score. Which is obviously impossible
if you are taking a practice test at home.

So what can one do? Is there no way to get

your AWA essays graded? Well thankfully,
there are quite a few options that you can
consider. We’ve listed down all the available
options, and it is up to you to decide which of
them you want to choose.
5 Ways to Get Your AWA Essays MENU

Graded
ETS Score It Now!

The ETS Score It Now, is a great feature

available for you to get your essays graded.
For a small amount of $13 dollars, the ETS
Essay Grader will grade two of your essays.
You can submit any two of your essay
responses, and the software will get back to
you with a graded score of your AWA. Now,
for most students around the world, and
especially for those from the developing
world, $13 is quite a lot of money.

And that is probably the reason why most

students don’t even know that such a facility
is available. We must agree, that even we at
CrunchPrep have never used the service
ourselves, or know any student who has,
simply because we did not need to. Our
expert tutors, on the other hand, have been
grading student essays for free for a long time
now. But nevertheless, we’re pretty sure that
the ETS Score It Now feature will get you an
accurate score, because well, it’s ETS who
developed it.

And there is one more downside with this

feature. The score is all you get, when you
submit your essays. No feedback. Now, you
would expect that ETS would give you some
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valuable tips to improve your score, but
unfortunately, that $13 you spend is only
going to get you a couple of numbers from
ETS. So, unless you don’t need feedback, you
are really not improving on the essay, and
you have money to spend, you should
definitely try and consider some other
alternatives to this service offered by ETS.

Friends, Family, and Experts

Yes. However unbelievable it might seem,

your friends can sometimes help you get
better marks. They can help you identify the
mistakes you did not find obvious enough,
and you also get an outsider’s opinion on your
essays, and therefore on your points of view.
Now, even though your friends might be
untrained, or unaware of the GRE AWA
grading system, having a second pair of eyes
look at your writing can be really beneficial
to finding your flaws. Plus, you receive
feedback then and there, right on your face,
and it is sometimes the easier way to learn.

But before you let your friends or family

judge your essays, you should tell them
beforehand that you only had 30 minutes to
write your essay, and so they should not
expect you to write an award-winning piece.
You should also tell them to pay attention to,
and then judge you on the following aspects
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of your essay: structure, logical flow of ideas,
and persuasiveness of examples. They should
ideally not be looking for impressive words or
sentence framing, but it is just an added
bonus.

If however, you are too shy to ask your

friends or family, try asking an experienced
professor at your college, preferably a
professor in linguistics or someone who is
really good at formal, written English
language. These professors not only give you
an accurate assessment of your essays, but
will also give you valuable insights as to
where exactly you can improve your writing
skills.

Self-Evaluation

When you don’t have access any professors or

wise friends who can help you evaluate your
AWA essays, the best option you are left with,
is you. Self-evaluation, though most of the
time not recommended, can be a really useful
option for you. There are hundreds of mock
essays on the internet, and with a simple
google search, you can get access to various
essays for the GRE. Even the ETS website has
a few sample answers for essays, and the
same questions have sample answers which
are purposefully written to mirror a 6.0, or a
5.0 level essay, for example.
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So, if you can compare your response with

those on the internet, you can roughly
estimate whether your answer is closer to the
4.0 or the 5.0 sample. If you can do this a lot of
times, you will begin to see a definite pattern,
which can help you estimate your average
AWA score. Also, most mock essays usually
have an explanation at the end, which
explain why they have been given their
respective scores. This really helps you see if
your essay is lacking in similar ways.

This sounds rather difficult, and it actually a

really complex and time taking process,
which is why you should try and take this
approach as a last measure; if you cannot find
any other alternative helpful enough.

Internet Strangers

If you are an internet geek, you would

probably agree that sometimes, internet
strangers are really helpful in nature. There
are many GRE forums like Urch
(http://urch.com), PaGaLGuY
(http://pagalguy.com), etc, where you will find
hundreds, if not thousands, of GRE experts
and aspirants, who wouldn’t mind lending a
hand. Thousands of GRE aspirants visit these
forums every single day, and if you can post
your essay and ask for some feedback, more
often than not, someone will provide you
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with the necessary assistance. While this
someone may or may not be an expert, it
often helps to have a second opinion from
someone in your niche.

GMATAWA.com

Alright. We’ve saved the best for the last.

GMATAWA.com (http://gmatawa.com) is
probably the most fantastic resource out
there, when it comes to grading your essays. It
was developed to grade GMAT AWA essays,
but rest assured, there’s not much difference
between GMAT and GRE AWA essays. The
basic structure of essays is the same
everywhere, and this website is really helpful
in grading your essays.

The grading happens instantaneously, and as

soon as you submit your essay, you will
receive a composite AWA score, along with
various metrics on which your essay has been
graded. We, at CrunchPrep, assure you that,
other than ETS Score It Now
(https://www.ets.org/gre/general/prepare
/scoreitnow), this is probably the most
accurate AWA rater you will see, and you can
expect a similar AWA score on your exam as
well. So, make full use of this feature, and
assess your writing strengths and
weaknesses. However, you should remember
that the website allows you to grade only 10
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essays per email address, so choose wisely
which essays you will be sending.

So, those are the five ways that you can get
your AWA scores graded. Most often, more
than one of the resources mentioned above
will definitely be helpful to you. And by the
way, remember this: Only two things can
make you a better writer – Practice, and
Feedback.

CHAPTER 2

Issue Essay vs
Argument Essay: 11
Key Differences
“Avoid getting confused between
the two types of AWA Essays by
understanding these 11 key
differences.”

…
The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
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section of the GRE asks you to complete two
separate but complimentary writing tasks:
The Issue Essay and the Argument Essay. Each
task tests your analytical writing skills,
including the assessment of your critical
thinking skills. Both these essay questions are
allotted 30 minutes each and are scored on a
scale of 6.0. And those are the only
similarities between them both.

There are lots of differences between these

two types of AWA essays that a majority of
test takers are unfortunately unaware of. It is
common to think that since both these are
essay questions, there aren’t many
differences between them. And most of the
errors that students commit in this section are
due to the confusions that exist between these
two essay types. GRE Issue Essay and GRE
Argument Essay are very different in nature,
and hence you need different strategies to
tackle them. We will go deep into each of
these essay questions you will see on the GRE,
but for now, remember that the GRE Issue
Essay requires you to construct and support
your opinions on a particular ‘issue’ that has
been given to you, whereas the GRE
Argument Essay requires you to validate the
authenticity, or the logical correctness of an
argument that someone else has constructed,
without letting your opinions interfere with
the task. Got the difference? Now, let’s move
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on to the finer details.

Issue Essay vs Argument Essay:

1. Your View vs. Their View:

The GRE Issue Essay basically tests your

ability to present an argument with your
views, and your ability to convince the reader
to agree to your point of view. As you can
clearly see here, you should include your own
views and add valuable points to your
response, in order for the reader to be
convinced to agree with you. On the other
hand, the GRE Argument Essay requires you
to completely analyze a brief argument
written by another author, and to effectively
critique the argument or the author’s point of
view, by providing sufficient evidences, and
by asking logical questions.

2. General Topic vs. Specific Topic

In an Issue Essay, the debatable topic that has

been given to you to analyze, is very general
in nature and can be from any field. It hence
doesn’t usually require you to have a very
deep knowledge of the topic. The issue is
simply provided as a statement, and your job
is to pick a side, stick to it until the end
without fiddling around, and present your
points of view, your analysis, and your final
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conclusions in a suitable manner.

However, in an Argument essay, the author

himself already presents a case with his/her
supporting evidences in the form of a
paragraph. Your job is to see how logical the
argument sounds, and check whether this
argument is right or not, whether the
argument has been made on solid grounds,
with sufficient evidences or not. You should
then effectively critique the argument, by
choosing sides. If you choose to substantiate
the author’s point of view, you can cite your
own examples to strengthen the points, and if
you wish to go against the given point of view,
then you must be able to ask comprehensive
questions that check the validity of the
evidences provided in the argument.

3. Analysis vs. Reasoning:

The directions for answering the Issue and

Argument essays are also different. The
directions given for an Argument Essay read
somewhat like this:

“Write a response in which you examine the

stated and/or unstated assumptions of the
argument. Be sure to explain how the
argument depends on the assumptions and
what the implications are if the assumptions
prove unwarranted.”
Or like this:
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Discuss how well reasoned you find this

argument. In your discussion, be sure to
analyze the line of reasoning and the use of
evidence in the argument. For example, you
may need to consider what questionable
assumptions underlie the thinking and what
alternative explanations or counterexamples
might weaken the conclusion. You can also
discuss what sort of evidence would
strengthen or refute the argument, what
changes in the argument would make it more
logically sound, and what, if anything, would
help you better evaluate its conclusion.

And the directions given for an Issue Essay

are entirely different from the Argument
Essay, and unlike the Argument Essay, the
Issue Essay can be accompanied with a varied
set of instructions, and there is no one
particular direction for you to follow. For
example, on the day of your test, you may see
any one of the following directions, at the end
of the issue:

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to

which you agree or disagree with the statement

and explain your reasoning for the position you

take. In developing and supporting your position,

you should consider ways in which the statement

might or might not hold true and explain how

these considerations shape your position.
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Write a response in which you discuss the extent to

which you agree or disagree with the

recommendation and explain your reasoning for

the position you take. In developing and supporting

your position, describe specific circumstances in

which adopting the recommendation would or

would not be advantageous and explain how these

examples shape your position.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to

which you agree or disagree with the claim. In

developing and supporting your position, be sure

to address the most compelling reasons and/or

examples that could be used to challenge your

position.

Write a response in which you discuss which view

more closely aligns with your own position and

explain your reasoning for the position you take. In

developing and supporting your position, you

should address both of the views presented.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to

which you agree or disagree with the claim and the

reason on which that claim is based.

Write a response in which you discuss your views

on the policy and explain your reasoning for the

position you take. In developing and supporting

your position, you should consider the possible

consequences of implementing the policy and

explain how these consequences shape your

 position.
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4. Your Conclusion vs. Their Conclusion:

In an Issue Essay, remember that you must be

able to introduce the issue at hand in your
own words briefly, using your own
conclusion, while in an Argument essay, the
given argument must be introduced from the
author’s point of view using his own
conclusion. This is such an important
difference between the two essays, and most
students tend to do the opposite more often
than not, which is why they end up with
average scores. You should always be clear on
whose conclusion you are taking into
consideration: yours, or the authors. And this
depends on whether it is an Issue Essay or an
Argument Essay.

5. Reasons vs. Flaws:

The second paragraph in the Issue Essay is

where you should be stating the side you have
chosen, and also your reasons for standing by
it. Whereas in an Argument Essay, the second
paragraph begins with the biggest flaw that
you have identified in the argument made by
the author. You should also discuss how his
conclusion made by the author overlooks this
major flaw. The flaws in the author’s
presented argument must be identified before
you start writing your response, which makes
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it easy for you while critiquing the argument.

6. Real Examples vs. Hypothetical

Examples:

In the Issue Essay, the body paragraphs

(paragraphs 2, 3, and 4) must definitely
involve relevant real world examples that
support your chosen claim. Remember that
the examples you provide must not only be
relevant, but they must be real world, true
examples. Which means, you cannot create
examples out of thin air, on your own. But, in
an Argument essay, you have the flexibility to
create your own examples, as long as they are
relevant to the given topic, and as long as they
efficiently substantiate the argument that you
are trying to make. The flaws made by the
author that you have identified, must be
stated with explanations and solid examples,
which can sometimes be fake, as long as they
fit the scenario you are trying to explain.

7. Appreciating vs. Questioning:

The conclusion statement in an Issue Essay

always involves agreeing with the opposing
viewpoint in one or two statements. Even
though you might not like agreeing with the
opposing viewpoint, you should mention that
it can be right in a few instances too. You
should do this in order to show your
emotional maturity level. But, in an Argument
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essay, the conclusion statements ends on a
note of doubt, where you claim that the
argument may have one or more valid points
but is otherwise entirely flawed, needs more
plausible explanations, and requires more
solid examples for it to be valid.

8. Agreeing vs. Disagreeing:

Agreeing to the point of view given in the

Issue Essay gives you more points to write,
since more often than not, the issue presented
to you is a general topic, and there will be few
points to go against, while there will be plenty
of points to support the given claim in the
issue. But we still advise students to go the
negative route. We will discuss this later on.

But the scenario is entirely different when it

comes to the Argument Essay. The Argument
given is deliberately made to sound negative,
and since the given argument requires a
critical analysis of the presented claims
rather than your own perspectives, you can,
and hence should, go against the author’s
point of view. Since more often than not the
author’s point of view will be flawed, you will
have lots of points to write, and it becomes
easier for you to attack the author’s argument
instead of trying to support it.

9. Limitation vs. Liberty:

A very important point you should remember
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is that in an Argument Essay, you should only
prove that the evidences supporting the
conclusion are inadequate, not that the
conclusion itself is wrong. The conclusion is
always right, but you should doubt or
question the authenticity of the conclusion,
meaning, ask how the author came to such a
conclusion without sufficient supporting
claims. But it is never wise to say that the
conclusion itself is wrong, so you should
rather limit yourself to saying that the
conclusion needs more evidences. On the
other hand, in an Issue essay you have the
liberty use anything and everything to
support your claim. Because the topic given is
very general in nature, you may use any
evidences to support your statements, even if
they say that the conclusion is wrong.

10. Statement vs. Evidence:

The Issue Essay depends on outside, credible

facts, because there are no evidences
provided within the issue. The issue question
is a simple, generalized statement, and there
will be no evidences provided. Which is why
you should go search for your own evidences,
and decide if you want to support or question
the conclusion made by the author. But the
Argument Essay already has its own
evidences provided within the paragraphs,
which you will have to analyze and critique.
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11. Two Sides vs. One Claim:

The Issue Essay is always like a two sided

coin, presented as a contestable topic with
two sides where you have the option to go
with the side you can present best. The
Argument Essay however does not have two
sides for you to choose. It has only one claim
which must be analyzed and critiqued.

In the GRE, AWA Section is very important as

it shows off your communication skills and
writing abilities. Looking out for these
common differences between the Issue Essay
and the Argument Essay, will help you avoid
mistakes and prevent misconceptions. A
better understanding of these differences and
sufficient practice will help you score high in
this section.

CHAPTER 3

7 Major Factors That

 Boost Your AWA MENU

Score
“Learning the various factors that
affect your AWA score positively
will help you write better, and
score higher on the AWA.”

…
It is important to note that the essay graders
are reading your essay in a fairly short
amount of time, usually between half a
minute to two minutes max. So, rest assured
that they are not going over your responses
with a fine-toothed comb. Nor do the graders
have any rulebook which they have to follow
in order to add or subtract points from your
overall score. There is no rule that says
“subtract .5 points for every 3 grammatical
errors in the essay.” Or “Add 1 point for every
5 impressive GRE words used in the essay.”

The graders are there to assess your essay

holistically. Which means, they are gauging its
overall effectiveness, and then assessing it, as
humans. But how do they gauge
effectiveness? Are there any metrics that
usually have in mind while going through the
essays? Yes. Fortunately, there are 7 major
factors that that may stand out to a grader
and help influence your overall AWA score.
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Organization
Organization is given the foremost
importance by many graders. And it isn’t that
hard to understand why. Essays that are well
organized are, in fact, easy to read. That’s
important because you don’t want to make
the grader’s job any more difficult than it
already is. The grader has only a couple of
minutes to read your entire essay, and poorly
organized essays are hard to follow. This will
lead the grader to give you a score lower than
you actually deserve. But on the other hand, a
well-organized argument is easy to follow.
Since the graders are looking at your
analytical abilities, it helps if they can follow
your argument.

If you organization is unclear, however, then

your argument is also likely to come across as
unclear. In the next chapters, we will be
discussing more about how your essay should
be organized in order to get a high score.

Syntax
Syntactical variety is a very key aspect of
writing quality content. Your essays should
always have a proper syntax, and you should
be using a variety of sentences to make your
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writing look professional enough to get a
perfect score. Syntax is a fancy word for how
you organize words into sentences. And you
already know how important organization is.
You should always try to write clear sentences
that are crisp and easy to understand. Unlike
what most students believe, you don’t have to
use extensive vocabulary, unless they really
fit into the scenario. So, save the GRE
vocabulary for Text Completion, and write
your essays simply yet creatively. Again, you
should remember that your grader has to
read hundreds of essays on the same day, and
they sometimes will not be thrilled to
untangle a complex sentence that you have
used. So, they naturally skip that sentence
and read further. So, it is always better to
write clearly and simply than to go for risky
propositions and complex sentence
structures.

Length
A general finding is that longer essays tend to
score higher than their shorter counterparts.
This may be attributed to various obvious
reasons. First of all, if you have written a
pretty long essay, it means that you have a lot
of insight into the given topic and you are
able to address numerous issues relevant to
the discussion. Second, if you can write a 500
word essay coherently within 30 minutes, you
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will be considered as a voracious writer in
general. These are the abilities that are
usually likely to impress a grader.

But, make sure that the quality of the essay is

maintained throughout the length and
breadth of your essay, for, if you don’t
maintain quality, you might come off as
someone who is just trying to impress but is
unable to organize and prioritize their
thoughts. Long essays that are clearly
organized, use professional language, and
contain strong supporting evidences, and give
enough reasons to the grader to give you a
better score. We’ll soon discuss more on this.

Support
Your essay response should definitely contain
quality instances of premises, facts or reasons
given to support the conclusion that you are
trying to make. Your essay needs to contain
some sort of supporting evidence, whether it
be logical, statistical, factual, or other forms of
justifications. Without proper support, your
essay will not be able to effectively develop a
firm position on the given argument or issue,
and it certainly fails to persuade the reader’s
opinion. So, make sure you always look for
supporting evidences, and provide them
wherever needed.
Examples MENU

Like discussed erstwhile, you’re going to have

to come up with a lot of examples that help
illustrate the point you’re trying to prove, if
you want to make your essay stand apart
from the rest of the pack. Since test takers
have a mere 30 minutes to write these essays
and will never know the topic beforehand,
the graders are used to seeing a lot of
hypothetical examples. And this is completely
okay. As long as you make sure that the
examples fit the point you are trying to
explain, it is completely fine. But the way to
make your essay stand out is to use real life
examples. I know it is very difficult, but if you
are lucky enough to have some background
about the given topic, you should try to
include an expert opinion within the essay,
and if you can, you should try and add
relevant facts, statistics, and case studies to
your essay.

Grammar
Although the AWA does not test your
grammar skills and the caliber of your
writing, if your essay has a lot of grammar
errors and spelling errors, it raises a serious
red flag in the mind of the graders. This often
happens because students tend to think that
they can outsmart the grader by using fancy
sounding words once in a while. While doing
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this doesn’t hurt, it is important to remember
that you should only use words you actually
know. Sometimes, students might not know
the exact meaning, or even worse, the
spelling of a big word that they heard
somewhere, but they still go ahead and use it
in a sentence. And obviously, they will be
wrong, one way or the other. Now, while
spelling is not one of the criteria the graders
look for in your essay, nothing gives them a
red flag like reading “Sevaral entreprenuers”
or “primery hypothesys”. These are regular
words used every day, and if you cannot spell
them right, your score is bound to go down.
Remember that unlike MS Word or other
desktop word processors, there is no spell
check or grammar check available on the GRE
AWA. So, don’t hurt your score by using
words whose spellings you don’t know.

Speed
The word processor on the GRE is quite basic
in nature. You’ll have basic keyboard
functions, plus three other features: cut, copy,
paste, and undo. And that’s all. No other
shortcuts or spell checks or other advanced
features like bold and underline. Now, these
functions work exactly as they do on your
computer. You can cut text from a portion of
your essay and paste it in at a different point.
Or you can use undo to delete your typing.
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Use these features and reduce the time you
spend on editing your essay. Learn how to use
these features, if you are new to them, and
practice speed typing at home.

This is really essential in these days of email

and text messaging, where most of the
younger population use chat language and
shortened forms of words like lyk, hw, wat,
imma etc. While this form of English is of no
good anywhere in your life, it is especially
frowned upon by the GRE community. So, if
you find yourself using these sort of words in
your essay, which has often happened in the
past with many students, you will see your
score go down suddenly and rapidly. So, it
wouldn’t hurt to do a little typing practice at
home before test day.

So, those are the seven major factors that help

you boost your essay score on the GRE. You
should analyze your AWA essays whenever
you take a practice test, and see if your essays
have all of these.
 MENU

CHAPTER 4

The 6 Step Process to

Conquer GRE
Analytical Writing
“These 6 steps when followed in the
given order, will help you conquer
the AWA section on the GRE.
Tackle even the toughest of AWA
Essay questions with these simple
steps.”

…
Here we discuss the step by step process you
should implement, if you want to write
powerful AWA essays in under 30 minutes
and get a 6.0 score. Each of these steps
discusses what you should exactly do, so as to
make things easier for you on test day. All you
need to do is follow these steps during
practice, and get these tips into your head
without much effort. Though the Issue and
Argument Essays are quite similar when it
comes to answering, we have given you
separate step by step process to ace them
both.
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AWA Issue Essay:

The Analysis of an Issue essay tests your
ability to “explore the complexities of an issue
or opinion and, if appropriate, to take a
position that is informed by your
understanding of those complexities.” What
this means is you should properly analyze the
given issue and take a strong position: either
negative or positive, and then elucidate
examples as to why you have chosen that
particular side.

The specific directions for the issue essay task

are given like this: “In this section, you will
need to analyze the issue presented and
explain your views on it. There is no “correct”
or “best” answer. Instead, you should
consider various perspectives as you develop
your own position on the issue.”

Before you begin writing your response, you

should take a couple of minutes to think
about the issue and plan a proper response
before you begin writing. This helps you
organize your ideas and develop them fully.
Make sure to leave sufficient time to reread
your response and make any revisions that
you think necessary.
Following are the six simple steps that you
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should follow in the same order, if you want
to pen down a powerful AWA Issue essay.

Step 1: Read the Essay

Obviously, this must be your first step. But

you don’t just read the essay. You must
perform a ‘smart read’. A smart read is where
you read the prompt and figure out the
central issue, and jot down this issue on your
scratch paper, including some of the
important concepts from the given topic. This
is what more than 95% of students fail to do.
Rather than juggling all your thoughts inside
your mind, it is a lot easier to pen down
whatever you have understood from reading
the prompt in your own words.

Your work on this first step gets you grounded

for the essay ahead. After reading the given
issue, and writing it down in a few concise
words, you should be able to understand
exactly what the issue is and also what some
of the crucial concepts related to that issue
are.

Step 2: Brainstorm Reasons and Examples

This is perhaps the most crucial step of all,

and this step is also where most of the heavy
lifting gets done. Once you know what points
you want to prove and what examples you
will use to prove that point, writing the essay
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will be very easy. Half of the duty lies in
brainstorming efficient examples and
supporting reasons to supplement your point
of view. So, make sure you spend adequate
time on this step. Pre-planning before you
start writing is of the utmost importance,
because then, you will have a continuous flow
of thought while writing, and there won’t be
any wastage of time. If you start writing
without thinking through the issue or
planning the structure of your essay, you run
the risk of wasting time on editing and
re-editing your points.

Or even worse, you might reach a dead end

and there is no more evidence left with you to
substantiate your point of view, but you’ve
already spent 20 minutes on the essay that
you cannot go back and write a fresh piece.
So, it is important that you take the time to
brainstorm some examples and then pick a
side. After you’ve written down the central
issue and the key concepts, you should ideally
make a “pro” and “con” list on the scratch
paper. Start thinking of reasons for both
agreeing with and disagreeing with the given
issue. Once you have enough reasons to pick a
side, you can move further. You should think
about how your personal experiences relate
to the issue at hand. Think about things you
have observed or experienced in daily life,
read about in magazines or newspapers, or
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even heard about from your family members
and friends.

Next, you should be coming up with some

examples of your own, that support or
illustrate your point of view. Good supporting
examples can be the difference between a
score of 4.0 and 6.0, so it is worth spending a
little time trying to generate them. Don’t
spend more than two or three minutes on this
part because you can still write a good essay
without perfect examples.

Step 3: Pick a Thesis

After you have some reasons and examples

for side that you have chosen to go with, you
will have to pick a proper thesis based on
which you will write your opinion. This is
because you don’t have to actually believe the
position you write about; sometimes, you may
disagree with the issue at hand, but find it
easier to come up with examples and reasons
for the other side of the argument. So, you
need to decide which thesis you are
comfortable writing about. Don’t mull over it
for minutes together. Just choose whichever
thesis allows you to write the strongest essay.
In most cases, you find the “con” side easier to
argue. You can find a lot of examples that
way. And that is completely fine.
Now your thesis needs to state why you
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believe this position is correct. Take a
moment to think about this, and jot your
thesis down on your scratch paper. Now you
are ready to outline you essay.

Step 4: Outline Your Essay

Don’t start writing your essay altogether.

Instead, outline your essay in the direction
you want to take. Figure out what you want to
write in the introduction, how you want to
start off, and how you want to end the
conclusion. Then, figure out what you want to
write in the body paragraphs. More
importantly, you will have to consider how to
introduce the opposing side of the argument
and how counter it with your point of view.
Mentioning the other side of the coin makes
the graders think that you are mature enough
to have considered the various perspectives
on the issue, without going ahead blindly
based on intuition.

Step 5: Write Your Response

If you have finished all the previous steps

properly and as planned, then this is by far
the easiest step of all. All you need to do is
write your response in a proper order,
something that looks like this:

1. Introduction – hook the reader with an amazing

 intro and state your most important thesis
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2. Agreeing to the given issue

3. Bringing up the negative side of the issue along

with supporting facts and quotes

4. Building up the negative side further with

examples and support

5. Conclusion

This is the most basic essay outline, and the

most famous out there. But you can also
follow an unconventional structure and still
write a great essay. Some of the other
structures that you can follow are:

1. Introduction

2. First argument for the side you take

3. Refute your first take and argue for the opposite

side

4. Second argument for the side you take

5. Refute your take again and argue for the opposite

side

6. Conclusion

This structure allows you to take a neutral

step, and hence interweave the arguments for
both sides, just like in a debate.
Another structure that can be used in many
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situations is:

1. Introduction

2. Argument for your side

3. Argument against your side

4. Argument for your side

5. Argument against your side

6. Conclusion: evaluate both sides and arrive at thesis

This structure is probably the hardest of all,

but has the advantage of being new and
uncommon. Graders will definitely appreciate
a new structure once in a while, and tend to
reward essays that move beyond the norm.

But, the point is, the writing part of the essay

should really be the easiest part. Most people
who think they have trouble writing actually
don’t have difficulty with writing, but they
have trouble figuring out what exactly they
are trying to say. So if you’ve completed the
previous steps, you should know more or less
what it is that you want to say about the topic.

Step 6: Proofread

Proofreading is another step that is often

neglected, mainly because test takers don’t
have the time to. They think they cannot
afford to waste one or two minutes
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proofreading the essay, while they can use the
same time to write an additional sentence or
two. But as a matter of fact, a perfect 400
word essay gets a higher score than an
imperfect 450 word essay. So, you should
rather focus on improving what you have
already written, and try to spend at least
three to four minutes on proofreading what
you have written.

Since you don’t have a spell checker on the

AWA, you don’t know if you misspelled any
word in a hurry. So, be sure to check every
single word, and try to refine your essay as
much as you can, before the time runs out.
Make sure you have all the necessary parts of
your essay and the examples you meant to
use. Doing these things will clean up the
overall appearance of your essay and can
only positively affect your score.

AWA Argument Essay

While the Analysis of an Issue task measures
your ability to create your own argument, the
Analysis of an Argument essay measures your
ability to evaluate someone else’s argument.
In the words of the test writers, the argument
essay tests “your ability to formulate an
appropriate and constructive critique of a
specific conclusion based upon a specific line
of thinking.”
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There are two key points in these directions;

“evaluate the argument,” and most
importantly (it’s so important the directions
place it in italics), “do not present your own
views on the subject!” Some test takers end up
basically writing an analysis of an issue essay
when they are supposed to be writing an
analysis of an argument essay. Your job here
is simply to evaluate and critique the
argument presented, not offer your own
position on the subject. If you do not answer
the question appropriately, you can say
goodbye to a good score.

The steps for the Analysis of an Argument

essay are somewhat similar to the steps for
Analysis of an Issue:

Step 1: Evaluate the Argument

The Analysis of an Argument task presents

you with a passage exactly like the passages
found on Critical Reasoning questions. Your
first task is to break the argument down into
its conclusion and premises. Once you have
the conclusion and the premises, the next step
is to find the assumptions underlying the
argument.

Step 2: Brainstorm Assumptions

These arguments are usually full of holes,
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even more so than Critical Reasoning
arguments. You should be able to find two or
three major assumptions necessary to make
the conclusion work. Look for the common
argument patterns: causal, sampling, and
analogy. Of course, there may be a lot of
assumptions spread around the entire
argument, but you only need two or three
good assumptions to construct your essay.
Now that you have the major assumptions,
you can plan the general format of your essay.

Step 3: Pick a Thesis

Picking a thesis on the argument section is

rather easy and involves just one step. Just
assume that whatever assumptions that the
author has made have no evidences, and go
completely negative on that, and prepare a
thesis in your mind in that direction.

Now your thesis needs to state why you

believe this position is correct. Take a
moment to think about this, and jot your
thesis down on your scratch paper. Now you
are ready to outline you essay.

Step 4: Outline Your Essay

Once you have laid out the assumptions of the

argument, you need to evaluate the strength
of these assumptions. Since your task is to
evaluate and critique the logic of the
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argument, you must consider how viable
these assumptions are. Generally, the
arguments on the GRE are poorly reasoned,
so you should basically be looking for reasons
the assumptions fail to lead to the conclusion.
Think about ways you could weaken and
strengthen the argument. A typical essay plan
looks like this:

1. Introduction: Describe the premise and point out

the flaws or state your intention

2. Detail first assumption; explain problems with it

and how to weaken/strengthen the argument

3. Repeat for second assumption

4. Repeat for third assumption

5. Conclusion: Give final evaluation of the validity of

the argument

This is the most basic format for the

argument essay, but feel free to make changes
as and when you need. You may also use one
of the following structures that are less
commonly used.

1. Introduction: Describe the premises, conclusion,

and assumptions of the argument

2. Weaken the argument by attacking the

assumptions
 3. Strengthen the argument by bolstering the
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assumptions

4. Conclusion: Present final evaluation of the

strengths and weaknesses of the argument

Another variation goes right to the

assumptions in the argument:

1. Introduction

2. Detail first assumption; explain problems with it

and how to weaken/strengthen the argument.

3. Repeat the same for second assumption.

4. Repeat the same for third assumption.

5. Conclusion: Evaluate the strength of the argument

based on the assumptions.

Step 5: Write

The writing process on the argument essay is

in some ways a little easier than that of the
issue essay. Because the focus of this essay is
the logic of the argument, there is no need for
creative prose. Instead, you are merely
presenting the flaws of the given argument in
an objective fashion. Your delivery on the
argument essay can be straightforward and
simple and you can still get a great score,
provided your analysis is sound. Following is
what each paragraph needs to contain.
I N T R O D U C T I O N PA R A G R A P H
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Your introduction paragraph needs to lay out

the basic parts of the argument and let the
reader know what the purpose of the essay is.
Your introduction should have these
elements:

A statement of the conclusion

A statement of the premises

A statement of the essay’s purpose

B O DY PA R A G R A P H S

The body paragraphs of an argument essay

should describe the assumptions necessary to
the argument and then critique them. A good
critique should reveal the weaknesses of the
assumptions and also show how the
argument could be strengthened. Argument
essays do not require specific examples and
in many cases, specific examples would be
inappropriate. Focus instead on dissecting the
logic of the given argument. A body
paragraph should have the following
components:

A description of an assumption

An explanation of the weaknesses of the

assumption

An evaluation of the conclusion in light of the

 assumption
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C O N C L U S I O N PA R A G R A P H

The conclusion paragraph of an argument

essay doesn’t need to do much, but as with the
issue essay, you need to have one. All you
have to do is make a final evaluation of the
soundness of the argument.

Step 6: Proofread

Before you leave your essay, spend one or two

minutes proofreading your essay. Make sure
you have all the necessary parts of your essay
and that your essay is free from grammatical
and spelling errors. Correct any typographical
errors. Doing these things will clean up the
overall appearance of your essay and can
only positively affect your score.

CHAPTER 5

Examples and
Analyses of Perfect
 6.0 AWA Essays MENU

“Knowing how a perfect AWA

Essay should look like will help you
write perfect sounding, high
scoring essays.”

…
Now that you know how exactly you should
structure your AWA essays, it is time to
understand what a perfect essay looks like. In
this chapter, we will discuss a couple of
examples for perfect 6.0 Argument and Issue
essays, and we will also analyze the reasons
these essays deserve a perfect score. This will
give you a basic idea of the various key
aspects of the AWA essays that you should
include while writing. These essays have been
taken from the ETS Essay Pool itself.

Example and Analysis of a Perfect

6.0 Issue Essay
Question:

“When someone achieves greatness in any

field such as the arts, science, politics, or
business that person’s achievements are more
important than any of his or her personal
faults.”
Essay:
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When individuals attain greatness, their

achievements are more important than their
personal faults. While historians should not
whitewash the personal foibles of great
individuals, the impact that these mortals
have had in their fields should tower over any
personality defects. To focus on the personal
weaknesses of great individuals is to miss the
importance of their achievements.

The course of human history is decorated

with individuals able to rise above their peers
and reach the zenith in their fields. These
individuals are often the subject of intense
scrutiny from contemporaneous skeptics and
later historians. But no one can lead an
exemplary private life all the time; no human
being is able to withstand such surveillance
and historical scrutiny without personal
faults coming to light. Great individuals are
no exception. However, it is misguided to
focus on their personal faults rather than
their achievements. To do so is to miss the
importance of their work, without which our
culture would be worse off.

For example, Abraham Lincoln was arguably

one of the greatest Presidents the United
States has ever had. He managed to bring the
country through a substantial revolution and
to end slavery despite powerful economic and
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social forces working against him day and
night. However, Lincoln was not a saint. He
was moody and prone to depressive funks
that disrupted his family life and slowly
eroded his marriage. These personal faults
did not reduce his success as a President.
While we do not have to ignore questions
about whether he was a depressive, we also
should not consider them an important part
of his political heritage. In contrast, many
people criticize Lincoln’s decision to suspend
the right of habeas corpus. This (presumed)
failing is not personal in nature, but relates
directly to Lincoln’s work in his field.
Criticisms of this sort are entirely relevant,
whereas personal criticisms are not.

Another example of a great individual dogged

by criticism of his personal conduct is Albert
Einstein. Einstein developed a number of the
most important theories in modern physics,
including an explanation of the photoelectric
effect, an explanation of Brownian motion,
special and general relativity, and
Bose-Einstein quantum statistics. Each one of
these theories would have been considered a
great life’s work for a scientist; for one man to
contribute this much is remarkable. However,
Einstein also had life-long problems with
infidelity. The fact that he cheated on his wife
is in no way relevant to his accomplishments
in the field of physics, and indeed most
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references to Einstein properly ignore it. To
focus attention on the faults of his personal
life is to obscure the impact he made on
history.

Great individuals have personal faults, as all

human beings do. Yet it is incorrect to assert
that these faults detract from those
individuals’ accomplishments. We are better
able to appreciate the gravity of great
accomplishments when we are not burying
our heads in the sand, in search of personal
failings.

Explanation:

The essay above deserves a perfect score,

because it takes all the 7 major elements that
graders look for, as we have already
discussed in chapter 3: Clarity, Structure,
Sentence Variety, Vocabulary, Grammar,
Evidence, and Reasoning.

The thesis provided by the student is very

clear and concise. There is no confusion about
which side the student took. The issue essay
tests how well we can present a position on
an issue effectively and persuasively, and this
essay passes both the tests.

The piece is also very well organized. The

most popularly used structure “intro-
body-body-body-conclusion” really works
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well for this type of an issue, and the student
made good use of it. While the response
included only two examples as opposed to the
suggested three, the two examples presented
are extremely strong. President Lincoln is an
ideal case study of a leader whose greatness
should be not be obscured by his domestic
problems. The same can be said with Einstein;
his infidelities may have wounded his family
emotionally, but his contribution to modern
science and technology will be remembered
throughout the history of mankind. So,
obviously, two of the most historic and the
most apt examples were presented by the
student here.

Additionally, the conclusion is substantial and

does an excellent job of summing up the
essay. The student uses a variety of sentences
in order to make the conclusion unique, and
not sounding too much like the introduction
itself. He/She does a great job of restating the
introduction paragraph without sounding
overly redundant. Lastly, this essay is
extremely well-written, and shows the
student’s grasp over written English language.
The grammar and syntax are almost flawless,
and it is hard to write a better essay response
to this issue, in under 30 minutes.

These are the reasons why this essay deserves

a straight 6.0 score.
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Example and Analysis of a Perfect

6.0 Argument Essay
Question:

The following appeared in the editorial

section of a national news magazine:

“The rating system for electronic games is

similar to the movie rating system in that it
provides consumers with a quick reference so
that they can determine if the subject matter
and contents are appropriate. This electronic
game rating system is not working because it
is self-regulated and the fines for violating the
rating system are nominal. As a result an
independent body should oversee the game
industry and companies that knowingly
violate the rating system should be prohibited
from releasing a game for two years.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this

argument. Point out flaws in the argument’s
logic and analyze the argument’s underlying
assumptions. In addition, evaluate how
supporting evidence is used and what
evidence might counter the argument’s
conclusion. You may also discuss what
additional evidence could be used to
strengthen the argument or what changes
would make the argument more logically
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sound.

Essay:

The argument claims that the electronic

games rating system, although similar to the
movie rating system, is not working because
it is self-regulated and violation fines are
nominal; Hence, the gaming rating system
should be overseen by an independent body.
Stated in this way the argument fails to
mention several key factors, on the basis of
which it could be evaluated. The conclusion
relies on assumptions, for which there is no
clear evidence. Therefore, the argument is
rather weak, unconvincing, and has several
flaws.

First, the argument readily assumes that

because the electronic game rating system is
self-regulated, it is not working well. This
statement is a stretch and not substantiated in
any way. There are numerous examples in
other areas of business or commerce, where
the entities are self-regulated and rather
successful. For instance, FIA, the Formula1
racing organization is self-regulated. Yet, the
sport is very popular and successful, drawing
millions of spectators around the world each
year. Tickets are rather expensive, races are
shown on pay-per-view, and nearly all drivers
are paid very well.
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Another example is the paralleled movie

rating system that the argument mentions.
The author fails to clarify whether it is
working well, but it is clear that the movie
rating system is pretty well received by
people, who often base their decisions to go
see a movie with kids or not on the movie
rating. It has never been a case when
someone would feel cheated by the movie
rating and express disappointment
afterwards. Since the movie rating system is
also self-regulated, it follows that this
regulatory method is working pretty well and
it is not obvious how it can be the reason for
the poor electronic game rating system. The
argument would have been much clearer if it
explicitly gave examples of how the
self-regulatory system led to bad ratings and
customer dissatisfaction.

Second, the argument claims that any

violation fees for bad electronic game ratings
are nominal. It thus suggests that this is yet
another reason for the rating system not
working. This is again a very weak and
unsupported claim as the argument does not
demonstrate any correlation between the
monetary amount of the fines and the quality
of the electronic game rating system. In fact,
the argument does not even draw a parallel
with the mentioned movie rating system and
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its violation fines. If any such correlation had
been shown for the movie rating system,
which supposedly works well, then the author
would have sounded a bit more convincing.
In addition, if the argument provided
evidence that low violation fines lead to
electronic game manufacturers to ignore any
regulations with respect to the game rating
system, the argument could have been
strengthened even further.

Finally, the argument concludes that an

independent body should oversee the game
industry and companies that violate the
rating system, should be punished. From this
statement again, it is not at all clear how an
independent regulatory body can do a better
job than a self-regulated one. Without
supporting evidence and examples from
other businesses where independent
regulatory bodies have done a great job, one
is left with the impression that the claim is
more of a wishful thinking rather than
substantive evidence. As a result, this
conclusion has no legs to stand on.

In summary, the argument is flawed and

therefore unconvincing. It could be
considerably strengthened if the author
clearly mentioned all the relevant facts. In
order to assess the merits of a certain
situation, it is essential to have full knowledge
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of all contributing factors.

Explanation:

The essay above deserves a perfect score,

because it takes all the 7 major elements that
graders look for, as we have already
discussed in chapter 3: Clarity, Structure,
Sentence Variety, Vocabulary, Grammar,
Evidence, and Reasoning.

The thesis provided by the student is very

clear and concise. There is no confusion about
which side the student took. The issue essay
tests how well we can present a position on
an issue effectively and persuasively, and this
essay passes both the tests.

The piece is also very well organized. The

most popularly used structure “intro-
body-body-body-conclusion” really works
well for this type of an argument, and the
student made good use of it. The response
included sufficient examples that are pretty
solid, and more than satisfy the student’s take.
The examples provided are also real-life in
nature, as opposed to many hypothetical
examples that students write. This gives this
essay response quite an edge.

The student uses a variety of sentences in

order to make his/her point strong enough to
concur with. He/she does a great job of
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restating the introduction paragraph without
sounding overly redundant. All the
paragraphs are very well written, and the
structure, writing, and vocabulary used by
the student shows the student’s grasp over
written English language. The grammar and
syntax are almost flawless, and it is hard to
write a better essay response to this issue, in
under 30 minutes.

These are the reasons why this essay deserves

a straight 6.0 score.

CHAPTER 6

6 Types of False
Reasoning You
Should Avoid on the
Argument Essay
Be wary of these 6 types of false
reasoning traps on the Argument
 Essay, and getting a 6.0 score will MENU
be a cakewalk.

…
In order to confuse test takers, the AWA
essays will always contain some flawed
reasoning or illogical statements. In
particular, some of the paragraphs on the
AWA Argument essay will contain flawed
reasoning, which can appear in many forms.
While these forms can potentially be
unlimited in number, most of them can be
categorized into 6 groups. These are
potentially the 6 types of false reasoning that
you frequently see on the AWA Argument
essays:

1. Creating stereotypes. Assuming that characteristics

of a group in general apply to each member of that

group.

2. Assuming that a certain condition is necessary for

a certain outcome

3. Drawing a weak analogy between two things

4. Confusing a cause-effect relationship with a

correlation (famously known as post hoc ergo

propter hoc, i.e. correlation does not imply

causation)

5. Relying on inappropriate or potentially

unrepresentative statistics
 6. Relying on biased or tainted data (methods for
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collecting data must be unbiased and the poll

responses must be credible)

Almost all of the argument essays contain

more than one of the following flaws, so it is
important that you are aware of each and
every possible flawed reasoning.

1. The Stereotypical Assumption

We see this happen quite often in our
everyday life. People resort to creating
stereotypes of a particular person, or a group
of people. However, common sense says that
it is pretty unrealistic to describe a group and
then expect that every single member fulfills
the very same characteristics.

For example, saying that ‘Girls are weaker

than guys’ or that ‘Asians are geniuses’ is just
plain wrong, because in both the cases, the
statements are generalized in nature. While
both the statements can seem to be true for
the most part, we all know that in the real
world, some girls are stronger than guys, and
that some Asians fail their tests. Which
means, one cannot simply make a sweeping
statement in either of the aforementioned
cases.
Now, you can easily remember this type of
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false reasoning on the AWA, by relating it to
stereotypes. We generally think of stereotypes
as harmful because they unfairly limit a
certain group to a predefined characteristic
that often has little to no evidence. Hence, in
order to avoid falling trap to this stereotypical
assumption fallacy, you should immediately
consider any sentence that generalizes a
particular group as plain wrong, and attack
that assumption when you are writing your
response.

2. The Necessity Assumption:

This is a very frequent type of false reasoning
that hides in plain sight. Most students simply
cannot identify that this type of reasoning is
wrong. The author of an argument usually
assumes that a certain condition is necessary
to achieve the desired result. This sounds
reasonable, but the problem here is, the
author simply says that it is necessary to do
something to achieve something, and does not
provide the necessary evidence which proves
that there is no other means of achieving a
similar result.

For example, the arguments says that, if

students have to perform better in schools, it
is necessary that the teachers be more active
in the classroom.
Now, this looks like a perfectly logical
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statement to anyone. But the problem is, the
author has not considered whether there are
any other ways students can perform better
in schools. The author makes a simple
statement that outlines only one necessity –
the teachers being active – and does not talk
about the relevant evidences, or the
possibility of other ways to achieve the same
result. Of course, there are other factors
involved: maybe students can perform better
if they study every day at home, or if the
school redesigns the curriculum to suit the
needs of students, etc. So, you should keep in
mind to attack this necessity assumption, and
also to include the alternative factors or
possibilities.

3. The Illogical Analogy:

Analogy is when someone comes to a
conclusion about something on the basis of
another thing. For example, if a giant
conglomerate has doubled its sales in the last
one year because it had spent over $10
million on advertising, then in order for
another giant conglomerate to double its
sales, it has to spend more than $10 million
on advertising.

Now, on the first glance, this might seem like

a logical argument. But, if you think about it
carefully, it is an illogical analogy that the
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author has made in order to prove his/her
point. The argument may seem sound enough
to agree to, but one simply can’t analogize
these two scenarios, even though the size of
the companies is similar.

First of all, we don’t know if the two

companies are based in the same country or
not. The demographics in their respective
countries may respond to different incentives.
And there are several other factors like
industry, market size, product quality, support
system, target audience, consumer trends,
economic situation in the country, etc., that
need to be addressed, before the author can
make such a comparison. Without this
thorough background info, one simply can’t
make this analogy, and test takers should
hence not fall into such traps.

4. The Correlation – Causation

Confusion:
As confusing and bemusing as the title is, this
is one of the more frequent fallacies that
appear on the AWA argument essays. More
famously known as the post hoc fallacy, this is
easily one of the most common types of false
reasoning you’ll encounter on test day. So it is
very important that you master it.
Many arguments try to confuse test takers by
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arguing that correlation and causation are
one and the same. But in fact, they aren’t.
There is actually a world of difference
between them both. While correlation just
means that two events have occurred
simultaneously, causation means that one
event is the result of another event. Now you
understand how different these two are. To
illustrate further, let us take this as an
example: In the year 2000, Company X
released their new computer called Series 5,
and that same year, the US witnessed a huge
economic recession. Again in 2008, the
company released its second computer called
Series 6, and the US had undergone another
economic recession. So, whenever this
company releases a new computer, the
economy goes down.

Do you see how illogical it sounds? That is the

difference between correlation and causation.
The above example shows correlation, and
not causation. So, one should be careful
enough to understand that just because one
event happens after another, it doesn’t mean
that the first event caused the other to occur.

5. The Statistical Irrelevance:

You will often find that the AWA arguments
cite statistical evidence to support their
claims. Now, while we appreciate any kind of
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statistical data that further bolsters the
author’s point of view, we must also be
careful to analyze the relevance of the
statistical data in a particular scenario.

Sometimes, the argument may cite a statistic

according to a survey where a small group of
people were asked a question, and based on
their views, the author generalized the
opinion of the people of the entire city/state
/country. For example, if a survey of 1000
people in New York City say that they really
need a new park in the city, does it mean that
the entire population of the city feel the
same? In order to draw a conclusion about
anything, a larger sample is required. In
order to really identify the voice of the
people, the survey should at least include a
majority of people in the city. If the
population of New York City is 10 million,
then the survey should try to include the
opinions of at least half that number.

Hence, test takers should keep an eye on

statistics mentioned in the arguments made
by the author, and try to validate the
relevance or significance of the given
statistical data.

6. The Data Bias:

Sometimes, even though surveys include a
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large number of people or a certainly large
sample space, it is not enough to conclude
that the results obtained from the survey are
really true. Biased data is another reason why
data can be manipulated with, or tainted
easily. For any survey or data to be
considered legitimate it has to be collected in
an unbiased, fair, and scientific manner.

For example, if a survey was conducted

among children in a city, on the question
“What is your favorite color?” and the
children were given only two options, Blue
and Red, one cannot conclude that Red is the
most favorite color for the children in the city,
even though 83% of the children chose Red.
The survey clearly does not ask an open
ended question, and is biased towards either
Red, or Blue, or both. The survey is designed,
consciously or unconsciously, to yield certain
desired responses, and this definitely
manipulates responses by providing narrow
options.

Hence, test takers should question the

statistical legitimacy of a survey, and question
the author whether the survey or data
obtained is scientific and unbiased or not.

Checklist for Argument Essay

Task: MENU

Here is a checklist you should use when you

practice writing argument essays. Ask
yourself these questions to identify the flaws
in the given argument.

1. Are the facts stated in the argument real or are

they just preposterous exaggerations? (Hint: you

can always question the source of the information

provided in the argument)

2. If the argument draws conclusions from any

sample statistical data, then is the connection

between the data and the conclusion strong?

3. Is the sample data taken from the group similar to

the other group for which the conclusions were

made?

4. Is the sample data significant enough?

5. Is the provided sample data inconclusive or

invalid? Did it exclude other important factors?

6. Are the statements mentioned in the argument

from an authority on the subject or from

individuals trying to voice their concerns/opinions?

7. Do you have any real world examples that

invalidate the conclusion? (examples from your

personal experiences, from articles you read

before, from the news or from historical incidents)

Is there anything missing in the argument?

Maybe there is really something that should
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have been mentioned to make the argument
more concrete.

CHAPTER 7

How to Finish an
Essay in 20 Minutes:
9 Effective Strategies
to Save Time on the
AWA Section
Sit back, relax and watch as others
end up with unfinished essays.
Learn these effective time
management strategies and finish
off your essay in 20 minutes.

…
When it comes to acing any section on the
GRE, it all boils down to mastering one key
factor – time. Time is the only reason why
99% of the test takers cannot get a perfect
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score on the GRE, let alone on the AWA. But
then, just as pretty much with everything
related to the GRE, we at CrunchPrep have
cracked the code in order to finish off a
brilliantly written essay in under 20 minutes.
That’s right, 20 minutes only.

Just as with other sections on the GRE, there

are a few time saving strategies that you can
adopt on test day, if you want to finish off the
AWA section quickly, and still score a perfect
6.0. Here are the 9 most effective time saving
strategies that you should implement on test
day.

1. Finish off Introduction and

Conclusion First
This is an amazing technique that not only
saves time for you, but also relieves you of the
pressure of writing something in reply. All
you have to do is, as soon as you are ready to
pen down your response, finish off writing
the introduction and the conclusion
paragraphs first. Don’t bother touching the
other paragraphs yet.

Now you may wonder, how on earth one can

write the conclusion part without ever
concluding the essay in the first place. Simple.
As we have already discussed in the previous
chapters, you first outline your essay before
MENU
you start writing it. So, by the time you are
about to start penning down your response,
you will have already figured out what you
want to write in the introduction, how you
want to start off, and how you want to end
the conclusion. So, it becomes rather easy for
you to get started.

Finish these two very important paragraphs

as early as you can, preferably in the first 5
minutes. Now, if you can do this well, you
only have three more paragraphs to write,
and you have over 20 minutes of time left.
You can easily write each paragraph in 5
minutes, and the entire essay will be finished
before you know it.

2. Always Be Negative
Even though we asked you to pick a thesis in
the previous chapters, you should know that
if you want to save time, you will have to try
and stay on the negative side. This applies to
both the Issue and the Argument essays. If
you are wondering why, you should
understand how the human brain works
when analyzing a controversy. It takes no
time for us to point out mistakes in others,
while it takes a lot of thinking and courage to
appreciate something that is controversial,
because our brains are evolutionarily
hardwired to stay away from something
MENU
foreign, in order to protect us. And given the
incredibly limited time that you have on your
hands, it will be easier for you to criticize the
author’s point of view, than to take his/her
side.

So, let us go with some prejudice here. Before

you even start reading the essay question, you
should be in a negative state of mind, and be
ready to counter the given essay with lots of
criticism. You should believe that whatever
the author has written is false, no matter how
logical it may seem. This sort of thinking will
help you brainstorm the relevant points
quickly.

3. Attack the Assumptions

In both the Issue and the Argument essay
questions, the author will have made multiple
assumptions in order to come to a particular
conclusion. It is your job now to attack the
very assumption that the author makes. There
is no point in attacking mere facts, because
we never know if the facts are true or false.
Which means, you cannot simply claim that
the facts presented are wrong.  But you can
always say that the assumption is wrong. So,
as soon as you start reading the essay
question, figure out where the author has
made assumptions, and think about how you
can attack them.
MENU

4. Don’t Be A Perfectionist
This is a big problem among students today,
especially those who really want to get a
perfect 6.0 score. Wanting a 6.0 score is okay,
but the problem is, these students try to be
perfectionists about everything they write.
They try to make sure every little thing about
their essay response is perfect. Now, while
this is a good practice in normal life, you
should remember that this will hit you badly
on test day. You cannot simply make sure
everything you write is perfect, especially
when the clock is running after you, and
when you are totally stressed out.

A better strategy is to keep writing even

though you make mistakes, as once you think
you are done with the writing part, then you
can start proofreading your copy for mistakes
and small errors.

5. Use the Scratch Paper

One of the biggest sins that GRE test takers
commit, is that they don’t use the scratch
paper to its fullest. Don’t be under the
impression that the scratch paper is given
only to help you solve quant problems. The
scratch paper can be used effectively to score
MENU
higher on the AWA section too. Use the
scratch paper to pen down your thoughts as
you are reading the given topic, and also
make use of it to outline your essay, and to
devise a proper answering strategy.

If you need more details, on how to use the

scratch paper on the GRE, we have done a
separate post on that. Check out more scratch
paper tips and strategies here.

6. Practice Typing
If there is one thing that can help you write a
500-600 word essay in under 20 minutes, it is
the ability to type fast. Considering the fact
that you will take about 2-3 minutes to read
and understand the given question, another
2-3 minutes to figure out what you want to
write, and another couple of minutes to
outline your essay, you will be left with
roughly 20 minutes to write a 600 word essay.
Considering the fact that you should save
some time to proofread your essay, you
should probably be able to type around 600
words in 15 minutes, which means, 200 words
every 5 minutes.

Yes, it is possible to type a couple hundred

words in 5 minutes, if you already know what
you are going to write. Don’t worry about it.
200 words in 5 minutes equals 40 words per
MENU
minute, which is exactly the global average
for typing speed. But still, if you think you
can’t type that fast, start practicing today.
There are some fantastic free resources like
Keybr (http://www.keybr.com/) and
TypingWeb (http://www.typingweb.com/)
available online, that help you learn fast
typing.

7. Practice Keyboard Shortcuts

Learning keyboard shortcuts can be really
helpful on test day. The word processor on the
GRE is quite basic in nature. You’ll have basic
keyboard functions, plus three other features:
cut, copy, paste, and undo. And that’s all. No
other shortcuts or spell checks or other
advanced features like bold and underline.
Now, these functions work exactly as they do
on your computer. You can cut text from a
portion of your essay and paste it in at a
different point. Or you can use undo (Ctrl + Z)
to delete your previous typing. Use these
features and reduce the time you spend on
editing your essay.

8. Practice! Practice! Practice!

As straightforward as it gets. Just as with the
other sections on the GRE, the more you
practice writing long essays at home, the
MENU
higher you score on test day. But there is a
catch here: you should practice typing essays
on a computer keyboard. This is rather
important, because most of us today use
laptops and tablet phones to communicate,
and the keyboards we normally use differ
greatly from those of the desktop computers.
You will have to type on a desktop computer
keyboard on test day, and it is recommended
that you get used to the new keyboard at
home itself.

9. Read The Entire AWA Question

Pool
We generally don’t recommend this to every
student, since most of them don’t have the
time to. But if your test is months away from
now, it will do you a world of good if you can
go through each and every AWA question
from the ETS Essay Pool. There are separate
question pools for Issue Essays
(https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general
/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool) and
Argument Essays (https://www.ets.org
/gre/revised_general/prepare
/analytical_writing/argument/pool), and they
are not too many in number. You could
probably finish them all in a month or two.
Remember that the AWA questions you will
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see on test day will be from these essay
pools only. So, it won’t hurt to check them all
out.

CHAPTER 8

Top 101 Transitional

Words and Phrases
You Should Use to
Score a 6.0 on the
AWA Section
Turn your average essay into a
phenomenal piece of literature with
these top transitional words. Use
these words and phrases and your
essay will read like a great story.

…
The difference between a normal essay and a
great essay, is the way it is written. Normal
essays are lifeless, and they bore readers a
MENU
few lines into the story. But on the other hand,
great essays meticulously use persuasive
language, and gain the reader’s attention. In
addition to writing compelling reasons and
connecting stories, you should also include
powerful vocabulary, if you want to get a
perfect score. Since a lot of students who take
the GRE are non-native speakers, they will not
be able to naturally write essays that sound
truly professional.

So, here are some of the words and phrases

you should be using when you write your
AWA essays. You might have seen these words
countless times in books, newspapers, or
magazines. But it is time for you to include
them in your writings, and make your essays
sound professional.

Supporting words – for instance, for

example, to illustrate, to demonstrate, such as,
particularly, specifically, notably

Additional support – moreover,

furthermore, in addition, similarly, in the
same way, with respect to, as well as

Putting same idea in a different way – in

other words, to put it simply, in view of this,
with this in mind, to put it differently, that is
to say
Opposing words – by contrast, on the other
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hand, in comparison, on the contrary, instead,
though, while, despite, although

Consequential words – as a result,

accordingly, thereupon, thence, thus, because,
for this reason, in effect

Time indicating words – immediately,

formerly, currently, meanwhile, eventually,
first, second, finally, previously, henceforth, in
due time, subsequently

Certainty words – without doubt, most

importantly, indubitably, undoubtedly,
needless to say

Comparison words – in comparison,

however, likewise, even so, nevertheless,
nonetheless, all the same

Positive words – magnificent, grandeur,

magnanimous, phenomenal, marvelous,
prodigious, formidable, notable, glorious,
wonderful, paramount, sublime, flamboyant

Negative words – unfounded, doubtful,

questionable, oversimplified, problematic,
unconvincing, unacceptable, biased,
unreliable, defective, presumptuous, vague,
unwarranted, weak

Against the point of view words – one

cannot deny that, to be fair, it could be argued
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that, granted, admittedly, a stark contrast, as
contrasted with, on second thoughts

Concluding words – in summary,

consequently, hence, in closing, in conclusion,
therefore, ultimately, to summarize, on the
whole, for the aforementioned reasons

Ultimately, it is the content of the essay that

really matters. If you are able to write an
astounding essay, you really don’t need any
advanced words or phrases. But since it is a
herculean task for many students, especially
the non-native students, to write a perfectly
professional essay in under 30 minutes, it
would definitely help if some of these words
are included.

But at the same time, students should be

careful enough to not simply scatter these
words across the essay as they please. These
words and phrases should really fit in the
context of the essay, and the sentences must
smoothly integrate into one another. Hence,
refrain from using these words and phrases
improperly, and learn when and where to use
them in your AWA essay.
 MENU

CHAPTER 9

27 Mistakes You
Should Avoid When
Writing Your AWA
Essays
Better safe than sorry. Learning
where you can falter will help you
be aware. Avoiding these 27
mistakes will help you get a higher
score on the AWA section.

…
Until now, we have discussed numerous
techniques and strategies to score a perfect
6.0 on the AWA section. But, we think it would
be beneficial if you have all the probable
mistakes at one place, so you can safely avoid
them all at once. Here are the 27 mistakes that
you should strictly avoid while writing your
AWA essays. Now, some of these points may
sound repetitive since we have already
discussed a lot up until now, but think of this
as a checklist that can help you figure out the
danger zones and possible pitfalls.
MENU

1. Writing a cliché ridden essay

While using cliché phrases and sentences may
seem like an idea choice for anyone writing
an essay, it would more often than not be
detrimental to someone writing the GRE.
Understanding the fact that hundreds of
thousands of students write the same essays
every year, you should try and be a bit
different, a bit unique. Using the same
examples that everyone uses really won’t
help you much, because it only looks like you
have lifted those lines from someone else’s
passage or an online journal. So, try to use
your own examples, and your own sentences
while writing the AWA essays.

2. Not citing the original author

Sometimes, it would really help if you can use
a killer essay quote (//crunchprep.com
/gre/2014/killer-gre-essay-quotes) or two, in
your AWA essays. But it is important to
remember that you should cite the original
author, lest there is chance that you might
come off as pretentious. Whenever you are
quoting someone’s lines, it is customary to
give them the credit. Doing this will not only
reinforce your image as a trustworthy
individual, but also gives the grader an
MENU
impression that you are an intellectual
person. After all, only uber-smart people can
remember great quotes along with their
authors’ names.

3. Writing mixed-up paragraphs

If you remember what we discussed about
writing and organization in the previous
chapters, you should recollect the fact that
you must allocate separate paragraphs for
every idea or point that you are writing
about. Often times, test takers tend to stuff a
paragraph with two or three ideas, and end
up mixing it up pretty badly. This can often
cause confusion, not only to the grader, but
also to you. Discussing more than one point in
a single paragraph is not at all recommended.
Dumping all ideas into a single paragraph is a
very bad idea, and shows poor organization.
So, make it a point to not mix up paragraphs.

4. Giving away too much in the

intro
The most important aspect about writing an
article or an essay is to avoid giving away too
much information in the very beginning
itself. Don’t believe us? Ask any content
marketer. The key to writing exceptional
essays is to keep the reader intrigued until the
MENU
last word. This is one of the reasons why we
hate our textbooks but love fiction novels: the
latter simply keep you interested until the
end. So, you might want to implement the
same strategy when writing your essays. Do
not give away too many key points, or at least
your main idea, in the first paragraph itself.
There are separate paragraph for that.

5. Using irrelevant examples

Just as we already discussed multiple times
throughout this guide, avoid using irrelevant
examples as much as you can. Sometimes it is
fine to make up your own examples, but
remember that they should be very relevant
to the rest of the essay. So, as much as you
can, try and come up with strong and
concrete examples to support your point of
view.

6. Not summarizing effectively

One of the more overlooked mistakes in
writing is that many test takers tend to not
summarize their essays properly. A perfect
conclusion paragraph not only includes the
main idea or point of view that you chose to
side with, but also has a neat summary of all
the points that have already been discussed in
the previous paragraphs. Now, this doesn’t
MENU
mean you need to write them all over again,
but a quick conclusive line about each
paragraph would do you a world of good.

7. Introducing new points in the

conclusion
Yes, this happens quite often, and is one of the
major reasons why many are not getting close
to that perfect AWA score. Sometimes, you
finish off writing the entire body of the essay,
and move on to the conclusion paragraph. As
you are writing it, you are struck with a new
point or an idea that you think should be on
the essay at all costs. So, what do you do? You
somehow try to fit that point somewhere in
the conclusion paragraph, and you think it
will add to your existing robust set of points.
But guess what? You haven’t backed it up
properly anywhere in the essay, and hence
the entire point sounds irrelevant or
insufficient at that point of time. So, avoid
introducing new ideas or points in the last
paragraph. Be content with what you have
already written.

8. Writing immediately
If you have read the previous chapters
thoroughly, you would understand that there
is a step by step process that you need to
MENU
follow in order to get closer to the 6.0 score.
But, a majority of the students give in to the
temporal pressure, and start off writing as
soon as they read the question. This will only
lead to chaos in the next few minutes, as you
will find your head clogged with ideas. So,
give it a minute or two, and think about what
you are going to write, before you start
typing.

9. Not ideating correctly

A poorly presented idea is as good as an idea
not presented at all. Whatever point it is that
you are trying to make, you should make it
correctly. An improper presentation, or a
poorly organized idea will only make your
essay sound more amateur that anything else.

10. Taking too much time for

ideation
As straightforward as it can it, time is the
most valuable resource on the GRE. Taking
too much time just to gather ideas is not at all
good for your score. Almost all the essays you
will see on the GRE are quite simple to
criticize, and anyone with decent practice can
crack the code easily. So, in order to avoid
wasting too much time trying to ideate, you
should do a bit of practice at home.
MENU

11. Not sticking to one side

We’ve already said it out: Go negative! There
is no way an average GRE test taker can write
a perfectly balanced essay response in under
30 minutes, which is why most of them tend
to sway towards a particular side. You should
follow suit, if you want to score higher on the
AWA section. Not sticking to any one of the
sides shows that you are too afraid to stand
your ground, or that you are too confused to
pick a side. Neither of this is a good image for
you, so always pick a side no matter what.

12. Not using templates/structure

There are a few basic structures for writing
the AWA, and adopting them would be a good
idea, since you don’t have to reinvent the
wheel all over again. We have already done
most of the hard work for you, and provided
some basic structures and templates that you
can easily follow. If you can’t make good use
of them, at least try to create your own
organization or structure. Otherwise, your
essay response ends up being too clumsy to
understand.

13. Not being specific enough

Whichever side you choose to take, or
MENU
whatever point you are trying to make, be
specific. Never try to beat around the bush
and expect to get away with. You are not a
politician. Never use vague statements that
only lead the grader to more confusion.  Be
very specific about your opinions, and have a
clear idea of what exactly you are going to
write, even if it might sound a bit negative, or
a bit harsh on the author.

14. Using complex words just for

the sake of using
To paraphrase Maya Angelou’s epic quote,
‘You should use a word only if you know what
it exactly means.’ Keep this in mind at all
times. Do not use a word just for the sake of
using, and end up sounding like a novice
writer who is trying to impress people he
doesn’t know. Instead, use nice little words
that sound simple and professional enough to
get you a good score.

15. Not using transitional words

Your essay should read like a story. Every
paragraph that you write should have a
smooth beginning and a smooth ending, thus
making the entire essay readable. This can
only happen when you use transitional words
and phrases that are like bridges linking one
MENU
paragraph with another. Not using
transitional words can make your prompt
sound abrupt and hence, not perfect.

16. Not sounding confident

enough
Whether it is an Issue essay or an Argument
essay, you are asked to give your opinion.
Which means, you are entitled to write
whatever it is that you have in mind. Nobody
is going to argue, or disagree with you, so
there is no need to get defensive at all. Using
words such as ‘I think’, ‘in my opinion’,
‘perhaps’, ‘Maybe’, etc., will give the reader
the impression that you are not confident
enough to put your ideas forth. So, be more
confident, and more authoritative when you
are writing your opinions. Write like an
expert editor of a newspaper, not like a newly
recruited intern.

17. Using the word ‘I’ very often

While it is perfectly alright to sound like an
expert, it is not alright to sound narcissistic
and repetitive. A lot of students use the word
‘I’ way too often that it puts the reader off.
Yes, everybody already knows that it is you
who wrote the essay and that all the ideas
presented in the essay are yours. There is no
MENU
point in saying ‘I think this’, or ‘I would do
that’ etc. A few times is fine, but too many
times isn’t welcome at all.

18. Using the same sentence

structure over and over again
If you remember what we said earlier,
sentence variety is as important as anything
else. Using monotonous sentence structures
or repetitive phrases throughout the essay is a
pretty bad idea, since it tells the reader that
you, as a writer, lack variety, or creativity. So,
try to rephrase the same sentences and write
something else that means the same. Like
many other things in life, this comes with a lot
of practice.

19. Not including a counter

argument
Agreeing with the author to some extent will
give the grader a great impression about you
as a writer, but if you keep on agreeing with
the author’s points of view, without including
any new information from your side, you will
surely come off as someone without any
knowledge about the given subject. Given the
fact that almost all essays come from a wide
range of topics, and that they don’t need any
special prior knowledge, it would be bad if
MENU
you cannot counter the author’s deliberately
wrong point of view along with your two
cents.

20. Contradicting yourself

With so many arguments and counter
arguments clogged inside your mind, and
with the speeding clock on the screen, it is
possible that you somehow contradict your
own argument. Sometimes, when writing the
third or the fourth paragraphs, test takers
contradict their own opinions or points of
view that they put forward in the first one or
two paragraphs. This clearly shows that you
get confused easily. So, don’t contradict your
own statements, and always read what you
have written.

21. Letting writer’s block take over

your AWA
Writer’s block is when an author loses the
ability to write something new. This has
happened to the greatest of writers, and will
probably happen to you too, if you don’t
practice well enough before the test. If you
are someone who is not used to writing a lot,
then should start practicing for the AWA,
unless you want to end up staring at the
screen pondering how to begin the essay.
MENU

22. Affecting other sections due to

mistakes in AWA
Also you already know, you will face the AWA
section first. Don’t let the AWA section set the
tone for the rest of the test. Sometimes AWA
goes great, and you’ll feel extremely confident
(or overconfident) about the remaining
sections. Sometimes, you may not do well on
the AWA and feel gusted about yourself,
which affects the other sections. So, try to stay
unaffected by the result. Remember; you are
the one who sets the tone, not a couple of
essay questions.

23. Focusing a lot on grammar

and vocabulary
Even though grammar and vocabulary are
really important when it comes to scoring
higher on the AWA, you should not overstress
their importance. Write whatever you can
and as much as you can. Do not bother about
silly grammatical errors or workaday
vocabulary. Once you think you are done with
writing, then go back and read everything,
correct those grammatical mistakes, or
replace those boring words with good
vocabulary. But, do it only once you are done
with the essay.
MENU

24. Writing unnecessarily long

sentences
Mark Twain once said ‘If I had more time, I
would have written a shorter letter.’ That
shows how difficult it is to write short and
concise sentences. Anybody can write long
gibberish in a short time, but it takes lots of
practice, time and talent to keep it simple.
Now, even though you are not blessed with a
lot of time during the GRE test, you should try
to minimize your sentences to make them
sound smarter. Don’t try to use filler words or
phrases so you could increase the word count.
Quality trumps quantity any day.

25. Using slang language.

Writing as if you are chatting with a friend is
something that happens quite often during
exams. Using chat language and shortened
forms of words like u, hw, y, etc. is bound to
happen, especially if you are not very adept at
writing often. If however, you find yourself
using these sort of words in your essay, your
chances of getting a good AWA score will
rapidly decrease. So, it wouldn’t hurt to do a
bit of practice at home before test day.
26. Attacking the issue task as if MENU

it’s an argument
Or vice versa. It is possible to get confused
between an issue essay and an argument and
test takers often mistake one for the other.
This could be the gravest mistake you will
ever make on the AWA section, because if you
cannot understand whether the given
question is an Issue or an Argument task,
then you cannot write a proper response at
all. So, make sure you don’t get confused
between the two essay formats or structures,
and that you have a clear understanding of
both the question types.

27. Not leaving time for

proofreading
Proofreading is often neglected because test
takers simply don’t have the time. They think
they cannot afford to waste one or two
minutes proofreading the essay, while they
can use the same time to write an additional
sentence or two. But as a matter of fact, a
perfect 400 word essay gets a higher score
than an imperfect 450 word essay. So, you
should rather focus on improving what you
have already written, and try to spend at least
three to four minutes on proofreading what
you have written.
So, this is the most comprehensive list of
MENU
mistakes that you can avoid on the AWA
section of the GRE. With this, we come to the
end of this ultimate guide. And if this were
any other guide, we would have finished it
here. But since this is an advanced guide for
the AWA, we would like to give you something
special. Something that is exclusive to only
you. In our bonus chapter, we would like to
give you a bonus: A couple of super-secret
templates that you can use, if you want to
speed up your AWA preparation.

CHAPTER 10

Bonus Chapter –
Mind-Blowing
Templates to Score a
6.0 on the AWA
Section
The advanced AWA Essay
templates you will ever find on the MENU
internet. These AWA templates are
designed to give you an unfair
advantage on test day.

…
This bonus chapter includes mind boggling
AWA Essay templates that will get you a sure
shot 6.0 score. We have created these
templates after examining several hundreds
of AWA essays and responses from students
across the world. This chapter contains both
AWA Issue Essay Template and AWA
Argument Essay Template separately. Using
these templates will get you guaranteed
results, and you will see a perfect 6.0 score on
your own essays, guaranteed.

NOTE: But wait! Just because we have given

you a couple of templates, it doesn’t mean
that you just copy the same content during
your actual GRE test. Remember, this website
gets thousands of visitors every day, and if
every single one of you use the same
template, very soon, all your AWA scores will
be cancelled and your essay response will be
held for plagiarism. We definitely don’t want
that to happen, do we? So, better be careful.

We strongly advise you to use these templates

as frameworks, and use them to create your
own templates for both the essay questions.
The templates provided here are just for
MENU
reference, and it will only help you if you
create similar templates for yourself, rather
than using the ones given here.

Download the AWA essay template right

now!

Conclusion
So, that’s about it. We have come to an end of
this epic guide to ace the analytical writing
section on the GRE. We have discussed about
71 invaluable strategies that you could use to
improve your writing skills, and thereby get a
perfect score on the AWA section.

This is by far the most comprehensive GRE

Analytical Writing guide in the world. It was
created to help you ace the Analytical Writing
section in the GRE. If you think this is very
helpful, or if you really loved it, share it
(https://www.facebook.com/sharer
/sharer.php?u=//crunchprep.com
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(https://twitter.com
/home?status=71%20Mind-
Blowing%20Tips,%20Techniques,%20and%2
MENU
0Strategies%20to%20Score%20a%20Perfect
%206.0%20on%20the%20AWA%20-%20http:
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