During the GRE exam, students have to write two essays very distinct from each other – one, issue essay and two, an argument essay.
The two kinds of essay differ from each other and its important for students to note the differences in order to draft good articles on the final GRE exam day.
The table below explains the difference between Issue essay and Argument essay of GRE exam:
| Issue Essay | Argument Essay |
|---|---|
| Time duration : 45 minutes | Time duration : 30 minutes |
| In the issue essay, students have to express their view on the a given topic. They can go for the notion or even against the notion. However, a diplomatic view is not really appreciated in the issue essay of GRE exam. | In the argument essay, students have to reasonify/justify a given topic. Here one needs to be critique to a given subject without adding personal views or opinions. |
| In case of issue essay, if from start to end you stick to your view point and prove it with examples and illustrations – your score tends to be promising. | In argument essay the score is relative depending on how much material you can stuff in your essay to justify the given topic. |
Tips for Issue essay of GRE exam:
The tips to score good in Issue essay writing of GRE exam are as follows:
a) The introduction of the essay should clearly define two points – which side of the topic you have taken upon and why. In the attempt to keep the intro brief or crisp, do not miss these two points. The examiner looks at the intro of Issue essay to find these two composing factors. Also, its the intro/first para of your GRE Issue essay that should add readability and interest factor of your writeups.
b) Following the first paragraph comes the main body of the essay. In this, start with the first solid reason you want to club in to justify your view about the given notion. A followup example can simply make your issue essay robust and rigid. Fluffing up this point of the issue essay with emotions or unnecessary illustrations might not be good for your GRE score.
c) If required you can add a third para to the essay where you want to state a recent instance or news and relate it to the topic you are writing about, However this should be executed only if very sure about the trending topic. If not very sure about this relating with trending topic, you can simply skip and jump on to a concluding paragraph for your issue essay. At the conclusion you can sum up your content and also leave it with a futuristic connect.
d) As issue essays are usually for factual topics, GRE students often tend to miss out on the emotional link or transitional aspect of the essay. This might affect your GRE score and hence its recommended to maintain the tone, voice and mood of any writeup from start to end.
e) Compose your GRE Issue essay with declarative statements. First person and self reference should be avoided to abide the rules of writing GRE Issue essay.
Tips for Argument essay of GRE exam:
a) In the Argument essay of GRE exam, its recommended to go against the notion. This impresses the examiner and also broadens ones scope to write about the topic. Those who accept the Argument essay notion and plans to draft a writeup, falls short of points and ends up beating the bush of the given topic.
b) Stick to the traditional three fold method while developing the GRE Argument essay. Start with the point you want to make, connect it to a relevant example and conclude it with a valid justification. This gives sense and meaning to your Argument essay of GRE exam.
c) GRE exam does not state word limit for essays. This definitely does not leave you with the scope of writing at your heart’s content. Write till its required and till where the writeup essentially make sense. Extra writing of similar facts all through the body of Argument essay does not fetch any credit marks.
d) As you have to take up one side of a given topic in Argument essay of GRE exam, make sure you pick one and freeze to that till the end. A diplomatic view is the last thing examiners expect from GRE candidates in case of Argument writeups.
e) Before sketching any of GRE writeup, preserve a two minute to brainstorm and organize your writeup skeleton in head. That will increase your speed to solve GRE essays and also, help you write organized. Follow this rule from GRE preparatory days for overwhelming result.
