**写在前面的话**

本系列阅读摘要英文部分全部摘录自《新GRE官方指南及全真试题》，科学出版社，2006年1月第九次印刷版，仅根据自己学习需要有所取舍，并重新安排顺序等。故非本人原创。

面对这么多资料，还是先读读官方指南吧，很有收获的，不至于像个苍蝇般四处撞墙。如果偶尔路过此地，希望有所帮助。

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Key Words: critical thinking; persuasive writing; compelling; evidence (reasons and examples)

Review of the Analytical Writing Section

l  tests your critical thinking and analytical writing skills

l  assesses your ability to articulate and support complex ideas, analyze an argument, and sustain a focused and coherent discussion

l  does not assess specific content knowledge

l  (two issue topics) asks you to discuss the issue from any perspectives you wish, so long as you provide relevant reasons and examples to explain and support your views

l  (one argument topic) requires you to critique a given argument by discussing how well reasoned you find it; will need to consider the logical soundness of the argument rather than to disagree or agree with the position it presents

l  The two tasks are complementary in that one requires you to construct your own argument by taking a position and providing evidence supporting your views on the issue, whereas the other requires you to critique someone else’s argument by assessing its claims and evaluating the evidence it provides.

How the Analytical Writing Section is Scored

Holistic scoring means that each response is judged as a whole: readers do not separate the response into component parts and award a certain number of points for a particular criterion or element such as ideas, organization, sentence structure, or language. Instead, readers assign scores based on the overall quality of the response, considering all of its characteristics in an integrated way.

Present Your Perspective on an Issue Task

Understanding the Issue Task

The Issue task assesses your ability to think critically about a topic of general interest and to clearly express your thoughts about it in writing. Each topic, presented in quotation marks, makes a claim about an issue that test takers can discuss from various perspectives and apply to many different situations or conditions. Your task is to present a compelling case for your own position on the issue. Be sure to read the claim carefully and think about it from several points of view, considering the complexity of ideas associated with those perspectives. Then, make notes about the position you want to develop and list the main reasons and examples that you could use to support that position.

The Issue task allows considerable latitude in the way you respond to the claim. Although it is important that you address the central issue, you are free to take any approach you wish. For example, you might

n  agree absolutely with the claim, disagree completely, or agree with some parts and not others

n  question the assumptions the statement seems to be making

n  qualify any of its terms, especially if the way you define or apply a term is important to developing your perspective on the issue

n  point out why the claim is valid in some situations but not in others

n  evaluate points of view that contrast with your own perspective

n  develop your position with reasons that are supported by several relevant examples or by a single extended example

Understanding the Context for Writing: Purpose and Audience

The purpose of this task is to determine how well you can develop a compelling argument supporting your own perspective on an issue and to effectively communicate that argument in writing to an academic audience.

Preparing for the Issue Task

It is not your position that matters so much as the critical thinking skills you display in developing your position. No matter which approach you take when you practice the Issue task, you should review the task directions, then

n  carefully read the claim made in the topic and make sure you understand the issue involved; if it seems unclear, discuss it with a friend or teacher

n  think about the issue in relation to your own ideas and experience, to events you have read about or observed, and to people you have known; this is the knowledge base from which you will develop compelling reasons and examples in your argument that reinforce, negate, or qualify the claim in some way

n  decide what position on the issue you want to take and defend—remember you are free to agree or disagree completely or to agree with some parts or some applications but not others

n  decide what compelling evidence (reasons and examples) you can use to support your position

Remember that this is a task in critical thinking and persuasive writing. Therefore, you might find it helpful to explore the complexity of a claim in one of the topics by asking yourself the following questions:

n  What, precisely, is the central issue?

n  Do I agree with all or with any part of the claim? Why or why not?

n  Dose the claim make certain assumptions? If so, are they reasonable?

n  Is the claim valid only under certain conditions? If so, what are they?

n  Do I need to explain how I interpret certain terms or concepts used in the claim?

n  If I take a certain position on the issue, what reasons support my position?

n  What examples—either real or hypothetical—could I use to illustrate those reasons and advance my point of view? Which examples are most compelling?

Once you have decided on the position to defend, consider the perspective of others who might not agree with your position. Ask yourself:

n  What reasons might someone use to refute or undermine my position?

n  How should I acknowledge or defend against those views in my essay?

The Form. of Your Response

Your response may, but need not, incorporate particular writing strategies learned in English composition or writing-intensive college courses. GRE readers will not be looking for a particular developmental strategy or mode of writing; in fact, when GRE readers are trained, they review hundreds of issue responses that, although highly diverse in content and form. Display similar level of critical thinking and persuasive writing. The readers know that a writer can earn a high score by giving multiple examples or by presenting a single, extended example.

What matters is not the number of examples, the number of paragraphs, or the form. your argument takes but, rather, the cogency of your ideas about the issue and the clarity and skill with which you communicate those ideas to academic readers.