Verb form 10 doc

Here’s a freewriting example for the Analysis of an Argument essay from the pretest: Location location location they say but that’s not the only thing that matters.. style How to Divide

Incubation is perhaps an unconventional term to describe the process of mulling over ideas without

actually writing anything down It’s the back-burner thinking that often takes place even without your full awareness For example, you might have read an essay assignment and set it aside to complete later While you were out running errands, doing the dishes, or waiting for the train, you suddenly came up with ideas for your essay because part of your brain had been thinking about this topic

Unfortunately, on the AWA, you do not have the time to incubate As soon as you get your prompt, you will have to start brainstorming ideas

Brainstorming refers to the process of coming up with ideas, such as support for an essay, solutions to

a problem, or gifts for a birthday The key to a successful brainstorm is to be open to all ideas At this impor-tant stage, don’t censor yourself Write down whatever comes to mind The more freedom you give yourself

to think, the more ideas will come to you The more ideas you get on paper, the more freedom you will have

to pick the best (strongest) support for your thesis

Several brainstorming techniques can help you generate ideas and examples to support your thesis,

including freewriting, listing, and mapping.

Freewriting is a technique that is useful any time you are having trouble coming up with ideas and is

particularly helpful if you are having trouble getting started This brainstorming technique is exactly what it

says: free writing Write down whatever comes to mind about the question or topic Don’t worry about gram-mar or structure; write in your native language or your personal shorthand if you like Just write If you keep

your hands moving for even two or three minutes, you are bound to come up with some good ideas Here’s

a freewriting example for the Analysis of an Argument essay from the pretest:

Location location location they say but that’s not the only thing that matters I go out of my way

to a place if it has food I like (ex, Carmello’s) Maybe there are other factors keeping customers away (food, cost, service, atmosphere, other competition) maybe they just need to be more aggres-sive in getting customers to their door Maybe too pricey for mediocre food, so moving won’t mat-ter Moving—expenses—especially for closing down during the move

Listing is probably the most common brainstorming technique and particularly useful if you are a

lin-ear thinker Simply list on a piece of paper (or on the computer screen) all of the ideas that come to mind in relation to your topic Here’s how the writer of the Analysis of an Argument essay used listing to brainstorm ideas:

New location:

near hub  convenience

near stores  people eat after shopping

higher rent

maybe more competition

moving costs

– G U I D E T O E F F E C T I V E W R I T I N G –

Old location:

other factors?

food

service

price

atmosphere

survey customers

restaurant reviews

ads

Mapping enables you to make connections among ideas as you brainstorm For visual learners, this is

often the most effective brainstorming technique because relationships among ideas are clear and serve as trig-gers for other ideas Here’s how the same brainstorm might appear as a map:

Drafting is the process of actually writing the essay As you know from your own experience, drafts can

come in many varieties, from the very rough to the highly polished On an at-home essay, you have the free-dom to write roughly and polish your essay in several revision stages until your essay says what you want it

to say and the way you want to say it

However, on an essay exam, your first draft is essentially your only draft That is why, as we have already

noted, the planning stage is so important The better you plan your essay, the more complete and effective your draft will be

Revising and Editing

To revise means to carefully read over your essay and make changes to improve it Revising focuses on

improving the content (what you say) and style (how you say it) In other words, when you revise, you

con-centrate on the big picture: how you organize and present your ideas in your essay Editing, on the other hand,

OBLIGATION TO CONTRIBUTE

GOOD FOR SOCIETY

MORE

VOLUNTEERISM

PEOPLE

CONTRIBUTE

OUTSIDE

OF WORK

FIGHT ILLITERACY REDUCE CRIME,POVERTY HELP THOSE

IN NEED

GOOD FOR BUSINESS

EMPLOYEES

IMPROVE MORALE

RECOGNIZE SKILLS SATISFACTION FROMDOING WELL

MORE LOYALTY

TO COMMUNITY

IMPROVE LEADERSHIP SKILLS

IMPROVE INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH COMMUNITY

GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS

EMPLOYEE BASE REPUTATION INCREASEDBUSINESS

GOOD FOR SOCIETY = GOOD FOR BUSINESS!

deals with grammar (correct sentences), mechanics (correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation), and usage (correct use of idioms).

Editing is very important; your writing should be as clear and correct as possible Errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics can make your sentence unclear and frustrate your readers However, as a general rule,

it doesn’t make much sense to carefully proofread each sentence before you revise After all, you may realize that you need to rewrite, add, or delete entire sentences or paragraphs

style

How to Divide Your Time on an Essay Exam

As you know from your own experience, writing an essay in 30 minutes is very different from writing an essay

at home over the course of a week or two When you are writing an essay outside of class, you have the time

to write and revise several drafts Even if you are typically a one-draft writer, you know you have the option

of devoting considerable time and energy to revising

In an essay exam situation, however, you do not have the luxury of extended revision time after you draft, so you need to approach the writing process in a slightly different way Because you cannot count on having the time to revise for major issues, you must be extra careful to plan your essay wisely

On an essay exam, use this general rule of thumb for dividing your time:

■ one-fourth of the time planning

■ one-half of the time writing

■ one-fourth of the time revising and editing

The 30 minutes you spend on each AWA essay can be divided as follows:

■ 7—8 minutes planning

■ 15 minutes writing

■ 7—8 minutes revising and editing

Although no essay will be perfect (and is not expected to be), in general, the more time you spend plan-ning, the less time you will need to spend revising

– G U I D E T O E F F E C T I V E W R I T I N G –

Although the process of writing can be broken down into four consecutive steps, they do not necessarily occur

in a linear fashion In fact, writing is really a richly layered process in which two or more steps might take place simultaneously or the steps might take place out of order You might revise sections as you draft, for example,

or draft new sections after a period of extensive revision Many writers also edit as they draft and revise if they catch themselves making a mistake

That said, the process still works best in the general order of planning, drafting, revising, and editing It is fine if some overlapping occurs, but don’t skip a step or completely reverse the order of stages

 S e v e n S t e p s f o r W r i t i n g a S t r o n g AWA E s s a y

The following section takes the four steps of the writing process and breaks them down into seven steps for writing on an essay exam These steps will help you write a strong, effective essay on the AWA section of the GMAT exam:

Step 1: Understand the writing prompt

Step 2: Formulate a clear thesis

Step 3: Brainstorm support for your thesis

Step 4: Create a detailed outline

Step 5: Write your essay

Step 6: Revise

Step 7: Edit carefully

Step 1: Understand the Writing Prompt

Before you can plan your essay, you need to be sure you clearly understand the essay prompt As noted ear-lier, it is essential that you respond accurately to the writing prompt you are given on the exam If you write

about a different topic, you will not receive credit for your essay It’s therefore critical to understand the

argu-ment or issue presented in the prompt and how you are expected to respond to that prompt

You already know that your Analysis of an Argument essay must critique the reasoning of the argument

in the prompt and that your Analysis of an Issue essay must present your position on an issue It is critical

to take the time to read the argument and issue carefully several times before you begin to write They are only

a few sentences long, so it will only take a minute or two to ensure that you understand your topic

In addition, be clear about what you are supposed to do in your essay After the issue or argument, you will find a brief set of instructions On most exams, they will be very similar to the instructions on the pretest The key words in each set of directions have been underlined

Analysis of an Issue

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above Support your position with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading Analysis of an Argument

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument In your essay, be sure to analyze argument’s logic and use of evidence For example, you may need to consider whether the assumptions that under-lie the argument are sound or whether counterarguments or alternative explanations would weaken the conclusion You may also discuss the kind of evidence that would strengthen or

refute the argument, what revisions to the argument would make it more reasonable, or what information, if anything, would help you better evaluate the argument

Occasionally, an issue prompt will include a slightly different set of directions such as the following:

“True freedom is the ability to make choices based upon happiness, not necessity.”

Explain what you think this quotation means and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with this opinion Support your position with reasons and/or examples from your own experi-ence, observations, or reading

This topic requires the additional task of explaining the meaning of the quotation Be sure to read the directions carefully, so you address each part of the directions in the prompt

Step 2: Formulate a Clear Thesis

Before you begin to write, you need a clear sense of what you are going to say in response to the prompt As

soon as possible, formulate a tentative thesis—a sentence that expresses your main idea or the argument you

are going to make and support in your essay

A thesis does not just repeat or paraphrase the question or prompt; it does not simply make general statements about the topic or state how others might respond to the question A good thesis takes a position and makes a clear assertion about the subject For example, for the Analysis of an Issue prompt, the

follow-ing sentences are not thesis statements (they do not answer the question):

“Successful corporations have a moral responsibility to contribute to society by supporting educa-tion, nonprofit services, or the arts.”

■ Many successful corporations contribute to society

■ Do successful corporations have a moral responsibility to contribute to society?

■ Corporations can contribute to society in many ways, including supporting education and the arts

– G U I D E T O E F F E C T I V E W R I T I N G –

The following sentences, however, are thesis statements Notice how they respond directly to the

ques-tion and make a clear asserques-tion about the subject:

■ All for-profit corporations have a moral responsibility to contribute to society by supporting educa-tion, nonprofit services, or the arts

■ For-profit corporations have much to gain by supporting education, nonprofit services, or the arts, but they do not have a moral responsibility to do so

To determine your thesis for your Analysis of an Issue essay, in most cases, you will simply need to state whether you agree or disagree with the statement in the prompt

Developing a thesis for your Analysis of an Argument prompt will be somewhat more complicated First, you need to examine the argument and determine its main flaw or the element around which your discus-sion will focus Your thesis should summarize your assessment of the argument For example, notice how the Analysis of an Argument essay from the pretest presents a clear, two-part thesis that identifies the problem with the conclusion and the argument’s lack of attention to alternate possibilities:

Although moving to a new location is certainly one method that could improve the restaurant’s patron base, it is not the only method, nor does it guarantee that numbers would improve The owners must weigh the costs of moving against staying in their current location and using other techniques to improve business

As noted earlier, the writing process is not necessarily linear, and you may need to brainstorm ideas before you determine your thesis For example, you may need to make several notes about the argument before you determine the focus of your evaluation

Step 3: Brainstorm Support for Your Thesis

Once you have formulated a tentative thesis, decide how you will support your answer On a piece of scrap paper, list at least three to five reasons, examples, or specific details to support your thesis or events to develop your story

Because you are still in the planning stage, write down whatever comes to mind Remember, you don’t have to include everything you list in your essay The more you put down, the more ideas you can choose from

to develop and support your thesis