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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:
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New location: near hub (cid:3) convenience near stores (cid:3) people eat after shopping higher rent maybe more competition moving costs
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Old location: other factors?
food service price atmosphere survey customers restaurant reviews ads
GOOD FOR SOCIETY = GOOD FOR BUSINESS!
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:
OBLIGATION TO CONTRIBUTE
GOOD FOR BUSINESS
GOOD FOR SOCIETY
EMPLOYEES
FIGHT ILLITERACY
MORE VOLUNTEERISM
REDUCE CRIME, POVERTY
HELP THOSE IN NEED
GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS
LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH COMMUNITY
REPUTATION
IMPROVE MORALE
EMPLOYEE BASE
INCREASED BUSINESS
IMPROVE LEADERSHIP SKILLS
IMPROVE INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
PEOPLE CONTRIBUTE OUTSIDE OF WORK
RECOGNIZE SKILLS
MORE LOYALTY TO COMMUNITY
SATISFACTION FROM DOING WELL
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
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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,
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deals with grammar (correct sentences), mechanics (correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation), and usage (correct use of idioms).
REVISING ISSUES
EDITING ISSUES
grammar
thesis
usage
support
punctuation
organization
capitalization
focus/unity
sentence structure
spelling
style
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.
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.
■ one-fourth of the time planning ■ one-half of the time writing ■ one-fourth of the time revising and editing
On an essay exam, use this general rule of thumb for dividing your time:
■ 7—8 minutes planning ■ 15 minutes writing ■ 7—8 minutes revising and editing
The 30 minutes you spend on each AWA essay can be divided as follows:
Although no essay will be perfect (and is not expected to be), in general, the more time you spend plan-
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ning, the less time you will need to spend revising.
1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4?
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.
(cid:2) Seven Steps for Writing a Strong AWA Essay
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.
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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.
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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-
■ 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.
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tion, nonprofit services, or the arts.”
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The following sentences, however, are thesis statements. Notice how they respond directly to the ques-
■ All for-profit corporations have a moral responsibility to contribute to society by supporting educa-
tion and make a clear assertion about the subject:
■ For-profit corporations have much to gain by supporting education, nonprofit services, or the arts, but
tion, nonprofit services, or the arts.
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.
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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.
