Verb form 9 pptx

– ABOUT THE ANALYTICAL WRITING ASSESSMENT–
228
■
Forms a thesis
statement that
shows a basic
understanding
of the issue or
argument and
the task pre-
sented in the
prompt.
■
Presents a rea-
sonable analy-
sis, often of
the most obvi-
ous aspects of
the issue or
argument.
■
Develops some
ideas more fully
than others.
■
Provides some
specific and rel-
evant evidence
to support the
thesis statement.
■

Maintains a
clear and appro-
priate focus
throughout most
of the essay.
■
Uses a logical
sequence of
ideas but may
lack consis-
tency.
■
Uses appropri-
ate language.
■
Shows some
awareness of
audience and
purpose.
■
Occasionally
varies the sen-
tence structure
and length.
■
Shows incom-
plete control of
standard
English.
■

Has some errors
but they do not
interfere with
comprehension.
4
3
■
Forms a thesis
statement that
shows a basic
understanding
of the issue or
argument and
the task pre-
sented in the
prompt.
■
Presents an
incomplete
analysis of the
issue or argu-
ment or neg-
lects important
aspects of the
analysis.
■
Develops ideas
briefly.
■
Provides some

evidence and
support material
to support the
thesis statement.
■
Creates, but
does not main-
tain an appro-
priate focus.
■
Uses a basic
structure but
may include
some inconsis-
tencies or irrele-
vancies.
■
Uses very basic
vocabulary.
■
Demonstrates
little sense of
audience or pur-
pose.
■
Attempts to vary
the sentence
structure or
length but has
uneven success.

■
Attempts to
control standard
English but has
some errors that
interfere with
comprehension.
– ABOUT THE ANALYTICAL WRITING ASSESSMENT–
229
2
■
Expresses a
confused or
incomplete
understanding
of the issue or
argument and
the task pre-
sented in the
prompt.
■
Makes little
attempt to
analyze the
issue or argu-
ment or pres-
ents a
fundamentally
flawed
analysis.

■
Is a combination
of incomplete or
undeveloped
ideas.
■
Uses references
that are vague,
irrelevant, repet-
itive, or
unsubstantiated.
■
Suggests some
organization but
lacks an appro-
priate focus.
■
Suggests a
focus but lacks
organization.
■
Uses language
that is often
simple and
imprecise or
that may be
unsuitable for
the audience or
purpose.
■

Shows little
awareness of
how to use sen-
tences to
achieve a rhyth-
mic effect.
■
Shows little
control of stan-
dard English.
■
Has frequent
errors that inter-
fere with
comprehension.
1
■
Gives minimal
or no evidence
of understand-
ing of the issue
or argument.
■
Makes little or
no attempt to
analyze the
issue or argu-
ment.
■
Has minimal evi-

dence of devel-
opment.
■
Shows no focus
or organization.
■
Uses language
that is very lim-
ited, incoherent,
and/or inappro-
priate.
■
Shows little or
no ability to vary
the sentence
structure or
length.
■
Is limited, mak-
ing the assess-
ment of
conventions
unreliable.
■
Is illegible or
not recognized
as English.
0
■
If response is

totally unre-
lated to the
topic, incoher-
ent, or blank,
the essay will
be given a 0.
Get Real Scores for Your Practice Essays
For a fee of $20, you can complete an official practice AWA and have it scored by the GMAC in the same way
your GMAT AWA will be scored. For more information, visit the GMAC website at www.mba.com/mba/Store/
products/EssayInsight.htm.
230
How Long Should the Essays Be?
Although length is not a guarantee of a high score
—
you could write 500 words of fluff
—
the length of the
essay and the score are related. In general, longer essays are more effective because they take the time to suf-
ficiently develop and support their ideas.
As a general guide, you will need to write at least four or five paragraphs to have a strong, sufficiently
developed essay. This includes an introductory paragraph that states your main idea, two or three paragraphs
developing and supporting that main idea, and a brief concluding paragraph. Your essay should run approx-
imately 400 to 600 words with an average of three to five sentences per paragraph. But remember, this is just
a general guide. An essay with seven or eight shorter paragraphs might be just as effective as an essay with
four longer ones. Keep these paragraph suggestions in mind, but focus on developing and supporting your
ideas.
You have probably written dozens, maybe even hundreds, of essays in your academic career, so you might feel
that you have already heard all there is to say about writing effective essays. In a way, you are right. Most of
what you read in the rest of this section will probably not be new to you. However, good writers are always
returning to the fundamental elements of effective writing. Sometimes a subject that you didn’t quite under-

stand before will suddenly make sense because it is explained in a different way or presented in a new con-
text. So read the rest of this chapter with an open mind. At the least, you will review the fundamentals of
effective analytical writing and get some specific tips for doing well on the AWA. At the most, you will learn
new strategies and techniques that will dramatically improve your writing skills.

The Writing Process
Experienced writers know that good writing doesn’t happen all at once; rather, it develops in stages. That’s
because writing is a process, not just a product
—
a process of determining how to best communicate ideas to
an audience for a purpose. It is difficult to produce good writing without going through each step in the
process.
CHAPTER
Guide to
Effective
Writing
15
231
A Word about Essays
The word essay has its roots in the Old French word essai, meaning trial or attempt, and the Latin exagium,
meaning weighing. Thus, essay can be defined as follows:
• a trial or attempt to accomplish or perform something, an undertaking
• a short prose composition on any subject
Essays—those short prose compositions—are really attempts to accomplish something: to convey ideas to
an audience for a specific purpose. In the process, the writer weighs his or her ideas and explores different pos-
sibilities.
Over the centuries, essay styles may have changed, but the standard form of the essay remains the same:
• an introduction that presents the topic and thesis
• a body that develops and supports that thesis
• a conclusion that restates the main idea

This standard structure has many variations, and these variations can be highly effective and make the read-
ing process more interesting. But remember, because of the time constraint and the fact that one of your read-
ers is a computer, it’s best to stick to the old standard.
232
The writing process can be divided into four steps:
1. Planning
2. Drafting
3. Revising
4. Editing
When you are under pressure to write a winning essay in just 30 minutes, you may be tempted to skip
these steps and just write your essay in one shot. You might end up with a successful essay with this approach,
but your chances of doing well on the AWA
—
indeed, on any writing task
—
will increase dramatically if you
take the time to work through each step. Even though you only have 30 minutes, the 10 to 15 minutes you
spend planning and proofreading your essay will be time well-spent. In fact, for essay exams, the planning
stage is so important that the stage is divided into four separate steps, which are discussed in this section.
Planning
Good writing requires preparation. The planning stage (often called prewriting) includes all of the steps that
writers take to prepare for their writing task. These include incubation, brainstorming, and outlining.
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
– GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE WRITING–
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