The Analytical¹ Writing Assessment² (AWA) is how business schools evaluate your writing skills. The AWA section has two 30-minute essay questions. One essay is the "Analysis of Issue,"swheresyou state your opinion on an issue .. The second is the "Analysis of Argument,"swheresyou analyze³ the reasoning in an argument. The two essay types require completely different strategies.

How the E-rater Is Used

Before February 1999, two human graders would grade your essays. If they disagreed, it went to a third grader. Under the new system, a human and the E-rater will grade your essay. If the human and E-rater agree on a score, that’s the grade your essay will receive. If they disagree, a second human will grade the essay to resolve any differences.

The computerized grading system pressures human graders to follow the E-rater’s strict standards. Human graders are aware that there is a computer double-checking their work, and they are more likely to follow the E-rater’s strict grading parameters⁴.

How to tackle the Analytical Writing Assessment

Students tend to under-prepare for the AWA section. This is ironic⁵ because it is the one section on the GMATswheresa small amount of preparation can make a huge difference on test day. You don’t want the issue of your embarr assing AWA grade coming up during a business school interview. To beat the AWA, you must learn how to write in a highly disciplined and concise⁶ manner.

Be particularly concerned with structure. Clearly divide your essaysintosthe introductory paragraph, two to three content paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Take time out before you start writing to set up an organizational structure .. Our Essay Guide includes sample essay templates for the Issue and Argument essays.

Use transitional phrases such as "first," "therefore," and "because" to help the computer identify concepts between and within the paragraphs. Make sure you spell these transition words correctly so that the computer may identify them (the E-rater does not have a spell-checker built-in).

Be a conformist. The E-rater is not programmed to appreciate individuality, humor, or poetic⁷ inspiration. The E-rater will be comparing the style and structure of your essay to that of other high-scoring essays. If your essay looks like the high-scoring essays in the E-rater’s memory banks, you will get a high grade; if not, you will get a low grade. Our Essay Guide has 20 sample high score essays to help you get a sense of the proper writing style for the AWA.

Clearly state your critique in the Analysis of Argument essay. The Analysis of Argument question will show you an essay that is loaded with logical fall acies, such as the unwarranted assumption or the fallacy of equivocation⁸. These are buzzwords that the E-rater detects to see if you have correctly identified the argument’s logical flaws. We include all the common logical fallacies in our Essay Guide so that the E-rater can tell that you have correctly critiqued the essay.

Know the essays and how to answer them. In our Essay Guide, we have all of the 275 real GMAT essay questions and 20 selected sample answers to those essay questions. This will give you a feel for the essay questions and how they should be answered.

Write in effective "American" style. Both the human and the E-rater will detect poor writing style. The E-rater’s memory banks have essays written in American grammar/style, which is slightly distinct from the English used outside of the United States.

Practice, Practice, Practice. Try to do the essays in the 30-minute time frame. That is half the challenge. Always practice under timed conditions on acomputer or take our practice essays for grading.