Analysis of an Argument

Of the two writing sections, I personally find this one a lot easier. It's more straight forward and assumes more or less a standard structure. If you're good at analytical thinking, you'll score well in this and let your creative brain sleep for a while :)

Again, like in the issue, evaluators see for certain specific things from your analytical argument essay such as these:

1. What claims, conclusions, and underlying assumptions does the argument make?

2. What additional evidence might weaken or stengthen the claims made in the argument?

3. What changes in the argument would make the reasoning more sound?

As you may already know, if you read an argument carefully, you may identify three disticnt parts in it: a) the basic claim that's central to the discussion b) one or more assumptions to arrive at the conclusioin c) of course the conclusion itself. If you recognised all of those perfectly, you've finished 1/4th of your job. There's still some work needed from you to think about some additional clauses that may weaken or strengthen the claim. And also some suggestions to the argument to make it look more reasonable. That's another 1/4th of your work. Now, all you need to do is plan your writing and structure it accordingly. So here's how you go about it:

1. Spend one minute to identify those 3 elements, think about some additional evidences and suggestions/changes to the argument, while simultaneously jotting them down on your scrap paper.

2. Structure your essay as follows: State clearly what the argument is all about - what it claims and concludes, in the very first paragraph. Add a line or two about your opinion over the argument expressing that it is not a sound argument and that it makes several assumptions. This makes a perfect trasition point to the following paragraphs where you'll talk about the assumtions one by one. Word your argument such that it sounds logical by providing contradicting examples where the claim may seem unfit. You could keep every point in a separate paragraph or keep all of them in one, as far as it logically transits from one idea to another. And finally, in the concluding paragraph, suggest one or two changes to the argument to make it sound more reasonable. Keep this one succinct and end it nicely.

3. Leave 5 minutes for revision. I cannot emphasise enough on this. Watch out for careless mistakes in grammar, spelling and typing.

You might already be knowing now about the pool of argument essays. My suggestion is to go through them once or twice and get prepared. Again, don't waste your time in writing all of them. But you might wanna practice a few of the topics in there.