Your essays will be graded by both e-rater and a human grader. The
e-rater is a computer program, designed to evaluate your writing
according to the pre-programmed criteria. If the computer and
human grader differ greatly in their assessments, a second human
is brought into the mix to referee and make the final call. The
final step is to average all four scores (two for each essay and
round the result to the nearest half point. This becomes the AWA
score included on the score report sent to the programs you
applied for.
That means the admissions office or/and professors may see your
original input before they make admissions decision. So a good
or bad essay can literally make or break your chances of
admission to a graduate school of your choice.What is a good
essay? A good essay will be persuasive in content, well
organized in structure, and clear in English language with, if
any, very few grammar errors.
General Strategy
The E-rater's main impact is to put more value on highly
structured writing and the use of keywords and phrases that it
recognizes. If you do not write your essay in the proper format
for the E-rater it could lead to a lower score. So, be careful
for the following Do and Don't.
Do
- Clearly show your essay organization by using
transitional words or phrases, such as “first”, “finally”,
“therefore”, etc to make your essay highly structured.
- Carefully read our tens of sample responses to Real
Essays to get informed how an E-rater-friendly essay can be.
- Respond to at least five essays each in limited 30
minutes. Make sure you are able to cover every necessary
paragraph on the test day.
Don't
- Write an essay like a prose or story. The E-rater simply
doesn’t like this. Rather, your essay should be logically
clear, and succinct in content, more like a summary of
strategy report from McKinsey.
- Never type “threefore” for “therefore”. If you do that,
the e-rater will assume there is no such word.
- Prepare very carefully for each of the 280 questions.
There is one point you should keep in mind. That is, no one
can prepare carefully for everything. Remember, GRE is only
one of the criteria that the graduate schools consider.
(Other factors such as work experience, and application
essays are also very important.)
Features of our Writing Courses:
- Detailed description of how your essays will be scored.
- Separate chapters on Issues and Arguments
- Includes a special section for E-rater--what e-rater
favor and how to fool it.
- Sixty sample answers to actual GRE essay questions
>> Table of Contents >>
Order the Essay
Course
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Analysis of Issue
1. General Strategies
2. Essay Template
3. Timing
Chapter 3: Analysis of Argument
1. What are you expected to do?
2. Three Common Logical Fallacies
3. Essay Template
4. Timing
Chapter 4: About the E-rater
Chapter 5: Sample Responses to Real Questions
1. Analysis of Issue
2. Analysis of Argument
Order the Analytical Writing
Course ($9)
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