AWA Hints from 6.0 Grader

Pick up the Princeton Verbal book. It gives a great, straightforward approach to tackling the AWA section.

Next, when you are writing your essays, take a very direct approach. The introduction and conclusion are the MOST important parts of your piece. Why? Because, as the books will tell you, the graders only take a few minutes to read over your essay, because they have a ton to read during their shift.

So my intro's are always like this:

"In today's society, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. Therefore, the author is incorrect in asserting that... and the alternate approach is more effective because..."

"The author introduces an argument that.... however, her reasoning is based upon 2 faulty premises, and one invalid assumption."

Make sure the reader knows EXACTLY what point you are trying to make. I always make my conclusion, or thesis statement, the last sentence in the introduction.

The body of your essay should then develop the idea you presented in the introduction. Make sure that each paragraph deals with one thought or piece of your overall argument, unless of course you are making a clear connection between two smaller ideas.

It is also important that you provide a real life example to support your position in the issue analysis essay. So get reading, or talk to your friends about current issues that you can call on to support your stance. Microsoft, intel - these are good for technology. Just find the basics, you don't need to come up with an obscure example, just something that shows you command a very good understanding of the issue.

Also, VERY IMPORTANT: ACKNOWLEDGE THE STRENGTHS OF THE OPPOSING ARGUMENT OR ISSUE. You want to show the reader that you understand that the opposing issue does have merit, but that your position is the superior choice. Don't expand too much on the strengths of the argument, but just make sure you mention them briefly. This applies moreso to the issue analysis, and not the analysis of an argument.

The conclusion then ties the introduction and body together, and provides some sort of link putting it all together. It should not just restate what you wrote in the introduction and the body of your essay - you should try to come up with a way to paraphrase what you have written. The idea is to restate the main idea of your essay without using the exact same language you used in the essay itself.

So to summarize, try to follow something like this for the argument analysis:

The author says this... but she is wrong based on reasons 1, 2, and 3.

New paragraph discussing reason 1

New paragrpah discussing reason 2

New paragraph discussing reason 3

1+2+3=6, 6 being the paraphrased conclusion linking everything together.

For issue analysis:

The issue is... and I take this position because...(make sure your position is fully established in the introduction.)

New paragraph elaborting on your position, provide some logical reasoning

New paragraph introducing a real life example supporting your position

New paragraph acknowledging that you understand the opposing view does have it's strengths - but regardless of this, your position is the superior one, and describe why, by introducing yet another new idea (if you can think of one) or by linking your reasoning from an earlier paragraph.

Conclusion ties it all together, but does not just repeat what you said in the body of the essay. You want to parahprase what you said, try to keep it interesting and remember this should be the cherry on top of your essay icecream.