Land Your Score: Analytical Writing Assessment Style Tips

In an earlier post, I shared tips for planning and executing an excellent GMAT essay for the Analytical Writing Assessment. Here are a few style pointers to help you land that high score.

The AWA is about confidence—avoid hesitation

Your AWA essay should have a formal, confident tone. You have dissected the argument and are now presenting your objective findings. So, say what you mean using strong language. Consider the following sentences:

I believe this argument is flawed because it is overly dependent on spurious assumptions that lack evidence.

This argument is overly dependent on unsupported assumptions and is therefore flawed.

Third-person pronouns (he, she, one) are appropriate in a GMAT essay. First- (I, we, us) and second-person (you) are inappropriate; in fact, unnecessary self-reference (I believe) is part of what makes the first example above less effective than the second. This is a form of qualification that diminishes the strength of your point.

Qualifying language includes descriptors (adjectives and adverbs) and verbs that “soften” the edge of a statement. The phrases “somewhat vague” and “rather wordy” have a softer impact than simply saying “vague” or “wordy.” Avoid these qualifiers in your GMAT essay:

• somewhat
• rather
• pretty (as in pretty much)  
• might be (as opposed to is/are)
• may be (as opposed to is/are)
• probably

This is not an absolute list, and these words are not totally off-limits. But be sure to use purposeful words and avoid unnecessary qualification.

Be concise, not wordy

Using active verbs and avoiding qualifiers automatically makes your writing concise. Say what you mean in as few words as possible. Consider the following sentences:

The manager seems to be assuming that the fact that there is a hamburger restaurant next to his particular video store is somehow causing that store to have higher sales volume and revenue than other outlets in the video store chain.

The manager assumes the proximity of a hamburger restaurant to his video store positively impacts that store’s sales.

Remember that graders read hundreds and hundreds of essays, and they spend just a minute or so reading each one. You want the grader to see your points right away, so don’t crowd your essay with unnecessary descriptors. Remember how the correct Sentence Correction answer is usually the shortest one (and the one that avoids -ing verbs)? Concision is underrated in daily life, but it is prized in writing a GMAT essay.

Be polished, not perfect

Graders can tell whether you had a plan before you started typing, so spend time planning before you write. If you break down the argument, decide on your points, and arrange your ideas into paragraphs when the clock starts, then you will have written a polished AWA essay before 30 minutes elapse.

Remember that formal writing is much more structured than texts and speech. We use sentence fragments for emphasis when speaking, but they are not OK on the GMAT (ikr?)—so, be sure to use complete sentences with proper punctuation and no abbreviations. Consider the following sentence:

The auther assumes that teachers math skills are not up to par when the the problem might be with their teaching style. Or their training.

Save at least 2 minutes to proofread your essay. Had I actually typed the above sentence in an essay, I’d have spotted and corrected the errors upon proofreading: The author assumes that teachers’ math skills are not up to par; she does not consider whether the [deleted extra the] problem is with their teaching style or training.

The essay should read like a solid first draft; it does not need to be absolutely perfect. Remember that an imperfect essay can earn a perfect score. Perfection is not required here.

Be yourself, use language you’re comfortable with

Now that I’ve given you a checklist of style tips to use on the Analytical Writing Assessment, my final point is that you must remember to be yourself. Use language you are comfortable with and trust your own voice. Do not try to write as if you were someone else. You know what you’re doing, so just do it—say what you mean with strong, correct, concise language and move on to the more important parts of the GMAT.

Looking to sharpen your GMAT skills? Take a free online practice test and review your performance.

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