Writing your GRE Essay: Best Examples Topics for a GRE Essay

Also known as the Analytical Writing Assessment, it comprises two parts. The Argument essay and the Issue essay. Thirty minutes are allocated for each essay. These two essays test your ability to write cogent thesis statements that you must defend as you continue writing. 

Issues essays require students to analyze and respond to general statements. These statements can be related to culture, politics, or education.

What you are doing is taking a position on a matter that is complex. Our best graduate writers for hire advise that you should not worry about the complexity and focus on one part at a time.

The argument essay requires the student to analyze and dissect the logic that is behind a position. Paragraphs should contain an explanation of your position. This essay requires more reading than the issue essay. 

How to Write a Good GRE Essay?

Good scores in your GRE essays can increase your admissions chances in graduate school. Students who are good writers and have good verbal and quantitative scores are wanted by the best graduate schools.

Writing a good Issue GRE Essay

Practice

The time constraint of minutes is a challenge to many students.

Practicing how to beat it is the best way to deal with it.

Issue essay is different from essays you write in school and needs a lot of practice.

How you get information across is very important.

Two or three times can be enough for practice.

Avoiding Waffling

The time provided is not enough to argue both sides of your issue essay. Pick a side and go with it. The side you chose is less important. What matters is how you defend it.

Readers will be looking to evaluate your skill and how you used the instructions given to develop and support your arguments.

Use Specific, Real-world Examples 

Avoid being general and challenge that hypothetical scenarios would never happen. The examples you use must be specific.

The Examples Should Relate to Your Topic

Your examples should be relevant to your topic. Don’t let the examples take the essay over. Examples that back up your arguments are important. They should be used to achieve the goal of proving a point.

Examples can include a variety of subjects including pop culture, history, sports, politics, current events, literature, and personal experience. 

Avoid Self-reference 

Issue essays are written from your perspective. Therefore, including phrases such as ‘in my opinion’ or ‘I believe’ in your essay is inappropriate. First-person pronouns are only used when giving an example from personal experience. 

Use Eclarative Statements

To avoid direct communication, use declarative and strong statements in your essay. The statements should convey information correctly by providing facts and offering explanations. 

Disprove the Opposing Riew in Your Conclusion 

If you do not know what to do in your conclusion, introduce the opposing viewpoint. This can be done by showing that some people do not agree and support the position you have taken in the essay.

Use two sentences to disprove their arguments. End it by reinforcing the validity of your thesis. Be brief as you do this because this is a short essay. Unlike long essays like extended essays, a GRE essay does not have a lot of word count. Therefore, brevity is key. Check out how to write an extended essay to learn more about it.

Presenting a good Argument GRE Essay

Good reasoning and impressive writing skills can help impress your graduate school. The following are ways one can come up with a good argument essay.

Practice

There are different ways to make arguments.

You will have to practice them to make sure you determine which suits you most.

You can search for argument essays online or ask for help from your seniors if you get stuck.

Point Out What Is Missing

This mostly includes inadequate evidence, false generalizations, misleading surveys, and inaccurate statistics. The argument that is provided in the paper must have its flaws.

It is your work to find faulty conclusions and sweeping statements. If there is data provided, make sure that it is correct because mostly it is not. All these things can give you an advantage before you start writing your essay.   

Discuss the Assumptions that the Author Makes

There are a lot of assumptions that authors make. Pick two or three of them to discuss in your essay. Do not list them down.

Discussing the problems that you have discovered is more important to show your level of understanding in the essay than just listing them.

Present Explanations to any Assumptions

To undermine the argument that was given, it is important to give explanations of the assumptions you have included in your essay.

When you show that there are other arguments that the author did not discuss, mistakes in the work of the author are visible and there is a possibility that the author is wrong.

Do Not Use First-person References

The essay should always be your perspective, therefore, there is no need to use phrases such as ‘I think’ or ‘I believe.’ When writing your conclusion and introduction paragraph, avoid using ‘I.’

Make Declarative Statements

To present laws that you have found in an argument, you have to show confidence. Be certain with what you write. Your language must be forceful and convincing. 

Provide Recommendations

This is usually done in the conclusion part. It can be the most challenging part of the argument essay, according to different students.

The concluding paragraph should be used as an opportunity to show that your argument can be strengthened if more data is provided.

Always provide the specific information that you are sure would be needed to make your argument stronger. 

It is important to note that half points that range from zero to six are used to score your GRE essays.

The issue essay and the argument essay are scored by two graders. If the scores differ by more than one point, a third grader will also score your essay.

The overall impression of the essay and not the errors is what is used by the graders to base scores. The average score of the two essays rounded off to the nearest half-point is reported as the single score by the GRE test maker. 

21 Topics to Use for a GRE Essay

1. People can argue that many technological breakthroughs have happened surprisingly or luckily, while some argue that research is well planned and deliberately is the root cause of technological advancement. 
2. Enjoying our success does not teach us our most valuable lessons in life, but struggling with our limitations does. 
3. The objective pursuit of learning about the historical past, as many people term it, requires creativity.
4. Some people believe that teachers have to be rigorous and demanding of their students. Others believe that empathy and understanding are more important qualities.
5. It is more dangerous compromising to a person’s beliefs than adhering to them.
6. An argument’s ability to convince someone with an opposing view is its best test.
7. The well-being of the citizens of a particular country can be used to measure the electiveness of the country’s leadership.
8. There should be a reshuffle in power after five years in the fields of government, business, education, and politics. 
9. Acquiring more knowledge does not make things comprehensible but more complex and mysterious
10.  Originality does not mean coming up with something new. It means using old ideas to create new ways.
11.  Studying academic disciplines changes how we perceive the world. Same world but with different eyes.
12. People disregard the works of the past that do not answer present needs.
13. People are too quick to act before thinking of the consequences of their actions first.
14. Direct learning is very crucial. Accepting theories without experiencing them is not learning at all. 
15. Risks and taking chances result in success as compared to cautious and careful planning.
16.  The ability of humans to think by themselves will deteriorate with the increased used of technology to solve problems.
17. Instilling a sense of cooperation and not competition is the best way for society to prepare the youths or leadership.
18. Human nature cannot be reformed by legislation. What is in the minds and hearts of people cannot be changed by the law.
19. Individuals are the impetus for innovation, but the details are worked out in a team. 
20.  The people of Michigan should elect a new leader to solve their environmental problems. The current regime has foreseen the worst environmental pollution in history, and only a new leader can change that.  
21. A study has shown that there are a lot of in-job accidents in ALTA company compared to COCR company because the working hours at COCR are more flexible. Therefore, to reduce the number of accidents at ALTA, the employees’ working hours should be reduced so that they can get adequate rest. 

Josh Jasen

Josh Jasen or JJ as we fondly call him, is a senior academic editor at Grade Bees in charge of the writing department. When not managing complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In his spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.