GRE Prep: How to Structure the GRE Argument Essay | Kaplan Test Prep

Alright guys, let's talk about how to

structure

your GRE

argument

essay

. You're very excited to answer this question because not only have I been teaching GRE

essay

s for over five years for Kaplan, but I also taught rhetoric and composition at Penn State. and I have written professionally for science news, so these essays have a special place in my heart and are often neglected, so I really want to make sure that you are

prep

ared and ready to perform the

argument

ative essay, before we know how. To

structure

the essay, we have to know what the essay graders are looking for because that will determine what we do well, how we develop and write our essay, so what are they looking for?

They are looking for five keys. First, they want to make sure that you respond to the specific instructions in the message. Second, they make sure you understand. They want to see that you understand the complexities of the argument. All right, number three, they want to make sure that. You understand how to organize your essay into discrete paragraphs, very well, fourth, they want to make sure that you know how to use evidence and examples to support your position, and finally, they want to basically make sure that you avoid a grammatical tragedy, may have a few errors. grammatical, but they want to make sure that for the most part it is well written grammatically, okay, so how is that going to determine how well we structure our essay?

I give all my students a template for both the argument and thematic essay. I'm going to walk you through the template through those important things. Well, with the introductory paragraph, guys, you want to quickly show the essay graders to immediately get off on the right foot and say, I understand what I'm doing here. I know what the task is and I understand the complexities of this argument, so guys, the task in an argumentative essay is to understand what conclusion the author is coming to, what the author is using to support that conclusion, and to uncover the underlying assumptions in the way that you want. you're going to structure your introductory paragraph right away you're going to say hey, the author concludes this now they know you know what a conclusion is now they know what this specific conclusion is the author uses this as evidence boom another keyword keywords are like catnip for essay graders, include as many of these important keywords as you can because they'll love it, okay, so first the author concludes that the author uses this as evidence to support that conclusion and then your thesis statement actually shows them.

You know what the specific instructions of the message are, however, the author makes several important assumptions that must be addressed before the decision maker, whoever that may be, can accept or reject the argument, and once he or she has done so immediately , the advisor the student feels at home feels safe and comfortable liking this person knows what they're doing I can just sit back and watch them do their thing, so let's quickly go over what the body paragraphs will do, each of them It will focus on a central assumption, so first it will say that the author takes a strong, active voice, it will say what the main assumption the author is making is, and then it will talk about what the impact would be if that assumption is proven not to be true. to be false, I use the three FS as transitional keywords for the body paragraphs first also finally first the author assumes also the author assumes finally the author assumes this provide support for assumptions that support those assumptions with evidence and examples develop your ideas develop your thoughts finally guys the conclusion you love how smooth there's something we want to do in every piece of rhetoric and it's called establishing ethos establishing credibility is basically a fancy word for don't look like an idiot so what you want to do in the end It's again remind them that you understand what the task is, so you want to say look.

I can admit that what the author has presented is potentially a good idea. Now you don't sound like an idiot, but what you want to do quickly is go back. to your central idea, recap your thesis changes, you already know what the author is doing, potentially a good point here, but we still don't have enough evidence, enough information to conclude that this is the best way to go, it's a quick look to how to structure your argumentative essay guys, but I hope to see you soon for more input on the thematic essay, but