"Analyze an Issue" Task Understanding the Context for Writing: Purpose and Audience

The Issue task is an exercise in critical thinking and persuasive writing.（批判性思维、有说服力的写作） The purpose of this task is to determine how well you can develop a compelling argument supporting your own evaluation of an issue and effectively communicate that argument in writing to an academic audience.（如何用有说服力的论据支持你对某个话题的看法） Your audience consists of GRE readers who are carefully trained to apply the scoring criteria identified in the scoring guide for the "Analyze an Issue" task.

To get a clearer idea of how GRE readers apply the Issue scoring criteria to actual responses, you should review scored sample Issue essay responses and reader commentary. The sample responses, particularly at the 5 and 6 score levels, will show you a variety of successful strategies for organizing, developing and communicating a persuasive argument. The reader commentary discusses specific aspects of evaluation and writing, such as the use of examples, development and support, organization, language fluency and word choice. For each response, the commentary points out aspects that are particularly persuasive as well as any that detract from the overall effectiveness of the essay.

 

Preparing for the Issue Task

Since the Issue task is meant to assess the persuasive writing skills you have developed throughout your education, it has been designed neither to require any particular course of study nor to advantage students with a particular type of training.评估你在教育中形成的说服性写作的能力，因此不需要特定的知识和特别的训练。

Many college textbooks on composition offer advice on persuasive writing and argumentation that you might find useful, but even this advice might be more technical and specialized than you need for the Issue task. You will not be expected to know specific critical thinking or writing terms or strategies;（你并不需要了解特定的批判性思维、写作形式和策略） instead, you should be able to respond to the specific instructions and use reasons, evidence and examples to support your position on an issue.（相反，你应该要能对特定的话题作出回应，并且用事例来支持你在这个话题上所持的观点。）

Suppose, for instance, that an Issue topic asks you to consider a policy that would require government financial support for art museums and the implications of implementing the policy. If your position is that government should fund art museums, you might support your position by discussing the reasons art is important and explain that government funding would make access to museums available to everyone.

On the other hand, if your position is that government should not support museums, you might point out that art museums are not as deserving of limited governmental funding as are other, more socially important institutions, which would suffer if the policy were implemented. Or, if you are in favor of government funding for art museums only under certain conditions, you might focus on the artistic criteria, cultural concerns or political conditions that you think should determine how, or whether, art museums receive government funds. It is not your position that matters as much as the critical thinking skills you display in developing your position.

An excellent way to prepare for the Issue task is to practice writing on some of the published topics. （准备issue task最好的方式是练习写作公布的话题）There is no "best" approach: some people prefer to start practicing without regard to the 30-minute time limit; others prefer to take a "timed test" first and practice within the time limit. Regardless of which approach you take, you should first review the task directions and then follow these steps:

• Carefully read the claim and the specific instructions and make sure you understand them; if they seem unclear, discuss them with a friend or teacher.（仔细读题，确保理解）
• Think about the claim and instructions in relation to your own ideas and experiences, 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. （将你的观点和经验，你读过或观察到的事和人与论题联系起来）
• Decide what position on the issue you want to take and defend. （确定你要支持和维护的立场）
• Decide what compelling evidence (reasons and examples) you can use to support your position.（决定用哪些有说服力的论据（原因和事例）来支撑你的观点）

Remember that this is a task in critical thinking and persuasive writing. The most successful responses will explore the complexity of the claim and follow the specific task instructions. As you prepare for the Issue task, you might find it helpful to ask yourself the following questions:问自己问题！

• What, precisely, is the central issue? 论题的核心是什么？
• What precisely are the instructions asking me to do? 这些说明让我干什么的？
• Do I agree with all or any part of the claim? Why or why not? 我完全还是部分同意论题的观点？
• Does the claim make certain assumptions? If so, are they reasonable? 论题做出假设了吗？如果是，他们是合理的吗？
• Is the claim valid only under certain conditions? If so, what are they? 这个观点只在特定情况下有效吗？若是这样，是哪些情况？
• Do I need to explain how I interpret certain terms or concepts used in the claim? 我需要对论题中的一些条件和概念做出解释吗？
• If I take a certain position on the issue, what reasons support my position?如果我对话题中的观点持特定的立场，那么支持我立场的原因是什么？
• What examples — either real or hypothetical — could I use to illustrate those reasons and advance my point of view? Which examples are most compelling?我应该用哪些例子（真实或是假设的）来说明这些原因和提升我的观点？那些例子最具有说服力？

Once you have decided on a position to defend, consider the perspectives of others who might not agree with your position. Ask yourself:（一旦你确定你要维护的立场，考虑到其他人可能会不同意你的立场，你要问自己：）

• What reasons might someone use to refute or undermine my position? 别人可能用哪些原因来反驳我的观点？
• How should I acknowledge or defend against those views in my essay? 我应该怎样认可或反对文中的观点？

To plan your response, you might want to summarize your position and make notes about how you will support it. When you've done this, look over your notes and decide how you will organize your response. Then write a response developing your position on the issue. Even if you don't write a full response, you should find it helpful to practice with a few of the Issue topics and to sketch out your possible responses.

After you have practiced with some of the topics, try writing responses to some of them within the 30-minute time limit so that you have a good idea of how to use your time in the actual test.

It would probably be helpful to get some feedback on your response from an instructor who teaches critical thinking or writing or to trade essays on the same topic with other students and discuss one another's responses in relation to the scoring guide. Try to determine how each essay meets or misses the criteria for each score point in the guide. Comparing your own response to the scoring guide will help you see how and where to improve.