As a business leader, you’ll need to know how to identify weak arguments and analyze assumptions.
The GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) provides clear instructions on how you should plan and write your essay. Kaplan students learn these instructions long before Test Day and do not waste precious testing time reading them while the clock ticks.
Kaplan GMAT students learn the Kaplan Method for AWA and the Kaplan template for structuring the essay into paragraphs. These tips accompany those lessons and help make the AWA task make sense.
Analytical writing demands objectivity
The AWA instructions are divided into segments, and the segment many test-takers overlook is that of the “directions”—which on the official GMAT read as follows: “In this section, you will be asked to write a critique of the argument presented. You are NOT being asked to present your own views on the subject.”
A critique is an objective criticism of the argument in the prompt. Including your opinion would be providing a subjective analysis, which is not the point of analytical writing.
So how should your objective critique be constructed? Because one of the hallmarks of a standardized test is the repetition of patterns across test administrations, you can rest assured that your Test Day AWA prompt will follow the pattern described here. The instructions will be the same, the argument presented in the prompt will contain familiar flaws, and as a result, you will be able to plan how you will fit the necessary pieces together in your essay.
Analyze the argument’s assumptions & supporting evidence
Every GMAT AWA argument comprises a conclusion and pieces of evidence, just like GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) questions. For both AWA and CR, the gaps between those pieces of evidence and the conclusion must be bridged by an assumption; in CR you look for the central assumption upon which the argument relies, and in AWA you will identify multiple assumptions.
Your critique of the argument will discuss the flaws you identify in its reasoning. A common mistake is to equate assumptions with flaws. However, it is fine for an argument to rest on an assumption, provided that assumption is logical and/or supported by evidence. For GMAT AWA arguments, the flaw is always the same: the conclusion rests on assumptions that the provided evidence does not support.
That consistent pattern provides you with your thesis statement; “The author’s argument is flawed because it is based on assumptions for which she does not provide sufficient supporting evidence.” Boom—done.
Draw a conclusion from your thesis statement
But the fun doesn’t stop there. This thesis statement also serves as an appropriate conclusion. By definition, a thesis statement provides a summary of the main point of the essay. Remember that the conclusion of any passage, argument, claim, or essay can be found by asking, “What’s the point?” So once you’ve crafted that thesis statement, shuffle the language a bit and you have a conclusion.
Here’s an example intro paragraph from a sample analytical writing essay: “The author concludes that the current problem of poorly trained teachers will soon be remedied. As evidence he describes a state proposal that will require teachers to take courses in education and psychology prior to being certified. However, this argument is flawed because its conclusion relies on assumptions for which the author does not supply supporting evidence.”
Notice that thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph. Now, take a look at the concluding statement of the same sample essay: “In its current state, the argument relies too heavily on unsupported assumptions to be convincing.”
If you prefer to have a two-sentence conclusion, you can add, “Without additional supporting evidence, the conclusion cannot be accepted.” And there you have one solid point—your thesis—that serves two purposes.
So remember your analytical writing directions: objective critique, no opinion. The “point” of your essay must be objective, critical, and correct, and once you’ve identified this thesis statement, you also have a conclusion ready to go.
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