GRE WRITING ASSESSMENT

MODEL ESSAYS - ANALYSIS OF AN ISSUE

(The following are not ideal essays that were written, rewritten and revised many times, but are first drafts written within the specified time limit of 45 minutes, approximating to what a bright GRE candidate is capable of composing in the test hall. It will obviously not be possible for you to memorize all these essays and reproduce them as they are when you sit for the test. But you can remember the arguments and the approach for each topic and also add a few points of your own if the computer chooses any of these topics for you. You must yourself compose essays on at least some of these topics, and later compare them with the following. Essay writing is a difficult art, and you can master it only with practice. The test hall should not be the place where you compose a GRE essay for the first time.) 1. We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose views contradict our own; disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. Any interaction with another person has the potential to help us learn something which we do not know already. This is true irrespective of whether the other person agrees with our views or disagrees with them. It may be true that disagreement, particularly if it results in a heated or emotional debate, can cause stress, and this may inhibit learning at that point of time. Later, when the tempers have cooled, a mental recall of the discussion can often result in the appreciation of the additional facts cited by the other person which would add to our knowledge and make us wiser. In fact, most disagreements do not even reach the stage of heated argument gentlemen holding contrary views often agree to disagree. So, the sweeping assertion that we can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose views contradict our own does not seem to be warranted. On the other hand, a person who shares our views probably is aware of just the same facts as we ourselves do. Exchanging notes with such a person does not often result in any addition to our inventory of facts on that particular subject. Contrariwise, the disagreement of a person with our views may be based on additional facts that he is aware of but which are unknown to us. If so, interaction with such a person with an open mind will, in fact, enable us to learn new facts, thereby adding to our knowledge. Very often, a discussion with a person who does not readily agree with us forces us to do further research into the subject to learn additional facts which will help us to persuade him to agree with us. Such an exercise enables us not only to add to our factual knowledge but to hone our thinking process as well. In fact, the method often deliberately adopted by professors when a student presents his dissertation is to contradict him at every turn and draw him into a meaningful, and occasionally even a bitter, discussion. This technique forces the student to search for additional facts or stronger arguments that he had not thought of initially. The final dissertation by him would be all the richer in factual and logical content because of this deliberate ploy by his professor in seemingly K. S. Ramakrishnan, American Education Aids, AD 79, Anna Nagar, Chennai 40

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

disagreeing with his thesis initially, and acting as the devils advocate. Even for a third person, listening to two persons holding diametrically opposite views would be a much better learning process than listening to the view of just one person. Judgments of courts are usually well-informed because judges are, by law, compelled to listen to two contradictory expositions of the same case. In the legislatures too, the ruling party often agrees to amend any law or action proposed by them after listening to the contradictory views expressed by the members of the opposition, thereby conceding that they have learnt new facts from the latter. For the foregoing reasons, I do not agree with the sweeping assertion made in the given quotation. 2. Competition is ultimately more beneficial than detrimental to society. The lack of force of the given quotation Competition is ultimately more beneficial than detrimental to society can be gauged from the fact that Communism, which had held the contrary view and had held sway in a major part of Europe and Asia during the second half of the twentieth century, has vanished without a trace now. The very basis of the Marxist theory was that competition, which was the hallmark of a capitalist economy, fanned the greed of the owners of the factors of production, and acted against the interests of both the workers and the community. Marxist governments abolished competition by doing away with private ownership, and made all economic activities a monopoly of the state. The notion that state monopoly is beneficial to society held its ground for nearly fifty years, but a bloodless revolution exploded this myth, and the erstwhile communist countries such as USSR and China have also opened up their economy to competition. Not only state monopoly, but even monopoly by a private sector behemoth acts against the interests of the society, because the monopolist has the power not only to keep the prices of his products high but to prevent the innovation of cheaper and improved products until his investments in the old products are fully amortized. That is why even liberal democracies have enactments curbing monopolies and restrictive trade practices. On the contrary, where competition exists, it forces each manufacturer to continuously improve his products, reduce his prices and offer better after-sales service to his customers. This results in the expansion of the market and consequent increase in production as well as job opportunities. In the service sector too, such as air travel, telephones and banking, it is the existence of competition that ensures that the costs to the consumer are kept at the lowest possible level even while the level of efficiency is kept high. The possible criticism against competition is that, sometimes, it can result in the fragmentation of the market to such nonviable levels that none of the competitors will ultimately survive. But, if such a situation arises, the marketplace itself usually provides the solution by the merger of two or more nonviable units. When there are such mergers, competition is again reestablished among viable units thereby serving the interests of the public again. Even in other areas such as sports and education, it is competition that brings out the best in every participant, thereby adding to the overall talent pool available in society. One can, however, think of some fields of activity where monopoly would serve the interests of society better than competition. For example, where the investment needed is huge and the gestation period is long (like a nuclear power plant), there may have to be an agglomeration of all the available resources in a single entity for the project to fructify. Sometimes, in order to internationally compete with a strong rival from another country (such as in the airline industry), local airlines may have to stop competing with each other and merge into a single, strong body. Thus, though lack of competition may be justified in certain specific circumstances, by and large, competition is beneficial rather than detrimental to society. 2

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

3. It is more important to allocate money for immediate, existing social problems than to spend it on longterm research that might help future generations. The dilemma of any government is how to allocate its limited resources among competing claims from a number of needy groups. While the needs of most of these groups are immediate, and all of them cannot be met with the available resources, should any allocation be made at all for purposes which do not confer tangible benefits to members of the present generation but may be of help only to future generations? One may be tempted to answer this question in the negative, and say that meeting immediate needs should take higher priority over spending money on probable future benefits. But a moments reflection will make us realise how wrong such an answer would be. Let alone government or society, take the example of a family. Are not many of us beneficiaries of bequests by our fathers or grandfathers in the form of land, house or other forms of wealth? Do we not see persons of the age 60 and above building houses, knowing fully well that they themselves may live in them only for about 10 years, but their children will occupy them for much longer periods? Do they not consciously decide not to spend all their savings on their own immediate needs but leave something behind for the benefit of their children and grandchildren? Does not the same argument apply in the case of societies? Are we ourselves not the future generations vis-a-vis our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers? Have we not benefited from the results of long-term researches initiated during their periods? To cite an example, was it not the research on small pox conducted during the early decades of the twentieth century which resulted in the total eradication of the scourge from the face of the earth during the 1980s? Similarly, was it not the sustained research and experimentation in aeronautics for many decades which enabled the construction of wide-bodied jumbo jets capable of carrying hundreds of passengers in transcontinental routes, thereby making air travel as affordable as it is today? While the researchers and the experimenters and those who had allocated the required funds for them did not themselves live to enjoy the consequent benefits, it is they who made it possible for us of this generation to reap the benefits. Human history cannot be divided into watertight compartments in terms of different generations, because it is an unbroken continuum. Much of what we enjoy today is the result of what our forefathers had done. No generation can assert that it will live only for itself, asking the rhetorical question, Since posterity has done nothing for me why should I do anything for posterity?. Animals live in the present, have no sense of history, and do not consciously do anything for their future generations. But mankind is different. Even as we pride ourselves on our past history and traditions, we have a responsibility to leave the world better than what it was when we were born. Therefore, in my view, allocating resources for long-term research that will help future generations is as important as allocating funds to meet immediate social needs. 4. No field of study can advance significantly unless outsiders bring their knowledge and experience to that field of study. On the very face of it, the given proposition appears unassailable because the totality of human knowledge can no longer be subdivided into watertight compartments. Nowadays, almost each field of study has to borrow from other fields for further progress. This has been clearly exemplified in the revolutionary progress which almost all branches of medicine have made in the last two or three decades. Much of this progress has been the result of the application of electronics to the medical field for which the doctors themselves, with their knowledge of conventional medicine, were not equipped. It is the association of outsiders such as electronics engineers that 3

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

led to the invention of modern diagnostic equipment such as the electrocardiogram (ECG) and the electroencephalogram (EEG). Similarly, it is the physicists association with medicine which gave birth to the revolutionary bloodless laser surgery which has become quite commonplace now. In recent times, laser surgery has improved the eyesights of millions of people, for which also thanks must be due also to scientists other than ophthalmologists. To cite another example, so long as astronomers had to depend upon optical lenses, the distance within which they could search for heavenly bodies and study their properties was limited by the power of the lenses. It was only when the radar scientists brought in their knowledge to this field and developed radio telescopes that this distance got multiplied thousandfold, and the very edge of the universe became accessible to astronomers. Automobiles is another example, in which many recent advances have been due not so much to improvements in automobile engineering techniques, but to the contribution of plastic chemists who had developed many lightweight materials which could be used in place of the heavy alloys which were used earlier. The weight to power ratio could thereby be drastically brought down resulting in improved fuel efficiency. There are, however, some fields of study which are so highly specialized that outsiders cannot even begin to understand them. Some esoteric branches of advanced mathematics would fall in this category, and they are understood probably by just a handful of persons all over the world. The use of computers can perhaps help in faster advancement of knowledge even in these special areas. But it will be easier for these mathematicians to pick up the required knowledge of computers rather than computer scientists picking up the required knowledge of mathematics. In spite of such rare exceptions, the given proposition can therefore be stated to be generally valid. 5. A nation should require all its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college rather than allow schools in different parts of the nation to determine which academic courses to offer. The given proposition asserts that the educational curriculum in schools must be identical throughout the nation and, changes if any, can be allowed only in colleges. This proposition may perhaps be valid in small countries with limited populations which are homogeneous in all major respects such as language, religion, food habits, dress etc. It is clearly not applicable to big countries such as United States of America, India or China, where there are great variations among the people regarding all these aspects. Take the case of India for example. It has a population of over 1000 million, of whom more than 40% are school-going children. The nation has 20 major languages, each of which is spoken in a well-defined geographical area. Each language has its own literature, both ancient and contemporary. Naturally, students within each linguistic area should be taught the literature of their own mother-tongue, and it will be absurd to say that children throughout the nation should be taught one single language. This would not even be politically acceptable. Big countries such as India, USA and China also have areas having vastly different climatic conditions, and very different types of fauna and flora. Agricultural practices, which depend upon climate, also vary considerably within the country, with different areas producing different cereals, different fruits and different vegetables. Consequently the food habits also differ significantly. The educational curriculum for young children in subjects such as botany should have direct relationship to all these factors, and cannot be uniform throughout the country. Each state in a big country like India has its own history. Because such history would have relevance to the local language and local culture, students in each state must be taught such local history in much greater detail than students in other states for whom similar history of their own state would be of greater relevance. The given proposition may be valid in the case of small and homogeneous nations such as Cuba, Guatemala, Sweden and even England because there is no pressing need in them to have different curricula in different regions. There can, of course, be uniformity in curriculum in respect of neutral subjects 4

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

such as arithmetic, physics and chemistry because these do not depend upon climate or living styles. In fact, if the school curricula of various countries in these subjects are analysed, one may find that they are more or less identical everywhere even now. For the foregoing reasons, I do not consider that there is any merit in the assertion that school curricula in all subjects must be uniform throughout a country irrespective of its size. 6. The most effective way to understand contemporary culture is to analyze the trends of its youth. I do not agree with the view that studying the trends of the youth would give us the best indications of contemporary culture. The youths, whom we may define as persons in the age group 18 to 25, form just about 10% to 15% of the population. The statement that the likes and dislikes of this small group of population, who are not yet fully mature, can be taken to indicate the general culture of the period is obviously illogical. Youths are generally boisterous and they invariably love speed and sound. They love to drive motorbikes as fast as they can and that too after removing or incapacitating the silencer. When it comes to music and dance, they love quick beats and loud noise. Most of them, at this age, may not be fond of reading, and certainly not of reading poetry. They may also like to dress in the gaudiest of colours. Should one therefore say that almost every culture is fond of sound, speed and gaudiness, and that literature is of no importance to any culture? It is only after the age of thirty, when the youths enter the threshold of middle age, that they attain maturity in appreciating the finer points of life such as music, dance and literature. It is during the remaining 30 to 40 years of their active life that they play a role in the development of these branches of culture, either by contributing directly to them as musicians, dancers or writers, or indirectly through supporting them through being part of their audience or through buying books. It is true that the advent of television does give the false impression that culture is all about what the youths are fond of. This is because loud sound, fast beats and quick movements look much more attractive on a TV screen than a sedate solo violin concert in which the artiste is reinterpreting Beethoven. The transient popularity of rock and roll, the Beatles and rap can be contrasted with the majestic durability of Beethoven and Mozart, because the youths, when they mature into middle and old age, discover that there is a lot more to art and culture than mere sound and speed. This does not mean that the culture of a community is static and unchanging, or that the youths in a community do not play a role in its evolution. Every culture is always in a flux, and does undergo changes in a subtle and imperceptible manner. But any quantum change that might have occurred in a culture can be discerned only over a fairly long period of fifty to hundred years. If there indeed has been such a discernible change, the change agents are more likely to have been persons in their middle age than the youths. 7. The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records. A video camera can certainly register sight and sound which a mere written record is incapable of registering. But the assertion that, therefore, the video camera provides a more important form of documentation than written records is questionable. This is because a record, whether written, spoken or filmed, can only be as accurate as the person who creates it wants it to be. In the same way that a writer can twist facts to suit his own purpose while creating a written record, a person wielding a video camera can also selectively record events or edit them later in such a way that what is made available for posterity is a highly distorted version of what had really happened. To test the validity of the given proposition, we have only to remember that voice 5

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

recording has been in vogue for over 80 years now. Does anyone seriously hold that audio recordings provide a more important form of documentation than written records? In fact, in many countries, such audio recordings are not acceptable as evidence in a court of law because of the assumption that they can be easily tampered with. Similarly, while TV channels may use visual and sound bytes in their news programs, courts of law do not even today admit such recordings as evidence in criminal cases. How can a technology which is considered untrustworthy even for contemporary purposes be considered trustworthy in respect of events that had happened many years, decades or centuries ago? One has seen how TV channels which have allegiance to opposing political parties show video clippings selectively to give exactly opposite versions of the same event. Written records have always been admitted as evidence on condition that their veracity is subject to independent corroboration. The danger with video recordings is that, because they show visual pictures of the events, one could be easily misled into trusting their veracity even though they might have been deliberately doctored with an intent to mislead. Developments in video editing technology enable even a novice operator to alter, mix and distort recorded clippings. Treating such clippings as accurate recordings of what had actually happened would be highly dangerous. Therefore, it is not true that video recordings have become a more important form of documentation than written records. What could perhaps be conceded is that, under certain circumstances, audio or video recordings can corroborate or add a useful additional dimension to written records. 8. It is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. There has always been an inherent conflict between the citizens right to information and the governments compulsions to withhold information. The constitutions of all liberal democracies concede freedom of expression to all their citizens. This has been interpreted to include the freedom of the press to publish any facts that it gets possession of. But the same constitutions enjoin that, when a high political functionary such as President or Prime Minister assumes office, he should be administered the oath of secrecy which prohibits him from revealing any information which he receives in his official capacity to any outsider. Thus, withholding information from the public has not only been considered desirable, but has been made mandatory even in liberal democracies. There must be sound reasons for such practice, and these reasons are not far to seek. Take military matters for example. It is quite obvious that delicate military facts must be kept as secrets not available to a potential enemy. And the only way that these can be maintained as secrets is to keep them outside the ken of even ones own compatriots. The need for such secrecy is not confined to military matters alone. Even in the case of delicate trade negotiations with another country, the political leaders cannot afford to place all their cards on the table even to start with, and have to keep some of them up their sleeves. This implies that most of these facts have to be kept away from local citizens too. Similar secrecy is called for even in certain circumstances which have no nexus to foreign countries. For instance, in the course of investigating a crime, the government cannot afford to reveal all the information it has already gathered because it would alert the offender and would hamper further progress of the investigation. So is the case when there is a communal riot. When a heinous crime is committed by a member of one religion against another, the authorities, in public interest, often suppress the religious angle because revealing that information could endanger the lives and properties of other innocent persons belonging to that religion. There is, of course, the risk of such secretive practices being carried too far. Political leaders can, and often do, resort to such practices more in personal than in public interest. 6

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

In liberal democracies, the inherent adversarial relations between the politicians and the press acts as a check on the misuse of this right of politicians to withhold information from the public - the famous instances in USA being the Watergate scandal and the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair. But, in countries with other types of constitutions where there are no such checks and balances, the right to suppress information can lead to the suppression of the fundamental rights of the citizens themselves. Thus, I would agree that, under certain circumstances, it is desirable for political readers to withhold information from the public. I would, however, like to amend the given proposition by substituting the word often with sometimes. 9. Academic disciplines have become so specialized in recent years that scholars ideas reach only a narrow audience. Until scholars can reach a wider audience, their ideas will have little use. I have no quarrel with the first part of the given proposition. It is indeed true that the recent trend in academic disciplines is to bestow greater and greater concentration on narrower and narrower areas of knowledge. The entire academic community has thus been fragmented into a large number of small groups of people who alone are able to understand what each other is doing. It is these small groups of people who have been constantly stretching the frontiers of overall human knowledge through a number of tiny steps. But this does not straightaway imply that the ideas of such small academic communities are of little use. The scientific team that developed the theory behind the first atomic bomb consisted of less than a dozen persons, but their subsequent impact, not only on politics but on all aspects of society in the succeeding decades, has been far reaching. It is often the case that the subtleties behind a scientific discovery or invention is not discernible to a vast majority of people. But it does not stop the majority from enjoying the fruits of that discovery or invention. Most people do not understand the complexities of a silicon chip, but does such ignorance hinder them from using a computer for the most complicated calculations? Similarly, the recent developments in laser technology were brought about by the coordinated work of less than a hundred physicists throughout the world. Even reputed scientists who were concentrating on other branches of physics could probably not understand the complexities of the research by the former group. But that has not stopped the fruits of the research being utilized in hospitals throughout the world in laparoscopic surgeries and eye surgeries, thereby saving thousands of lives and restoring eyesight to thousands of near-blind persons. One can similarly think of many other fields such as aeronautics, plastics technology, medicine, agriculture etc where discoveries by small esoteric groups have resulted in enormous practical benefits to millions of people, even though the principles behind those discoveries could be understood only by an extremely limited number of members of those groups. 10. Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, because it is primarily in cities that a nations cultural traditions are preserved and generated. There is an inherent contradiction in the given proposition. While villages and small towns have existed for many centuries in all surviving societies, the cities are essentially a phenomenon of the twentieth century. So, if we talk of traditions in any society (meaning the practices that have been in vogue for a long time), they are more likely to be generated and preserved in the time-honoured human settlements of villages and towns than in the modern cities. In large countries such as USA, India and China, different regions have vastly different cultures which had developed over long periods of time based on different languages, divergent landscapes and varied climates. Much of the hinterland of these cultures have remained unaffected by intrusions and influences of other cultures. On the contrary, the cities in these countries, which are relatively more recent human settlements, have attracted people from many parts of the country with these varying 7

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

cultures, are much more cosmopolitan, and can hardly claim any traditional culture of its own. If this view is accepted, the statement that it is primarily in cities that a nations cultural traditions are preserved and generated has no force. One may perhaps concede that each city has developed certain distinguishing characteristics of its own depending upon its geographic location, what its growth engines were and the interaction among the various ethnic groups which had played a role in its development. Whether these characteristics are worth preserving through priority spending by governments has to be examined only on a case-to-case basis. This does not mean that the first sentence in the given proposition, Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive is not valid. Today, in many countries, it is the major cities which hold a disproportionately large number of its citizens in relatively small geographical areas, and much of the nations wealth is generated by them. Also, a large chunk of the economic activity of the nation is concentrated in these cities. It is the cities which house many of the famous universities, which are the hub of intellectual progress. And it is these cities which generate much of the tax revenues of governments. Therefore, I readily agree that governments must ensure that these cities receive necessary financial support to thrive, but not necessarily for the reason mentioned in the second part of the proposition.

11. Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, because it is primarily in cities that a nations cultural traditions are preserved and generated.
There is an inherent contradiction in the given proposition. While villages and small towns have existed for many centuries in all surviving societies, the cities are essentially a phenomenon of the twentieth century. So, if we talk of traditions in any society (meaning the practices that have been in vogue for a long time), they are more likely to be generated and preserved in the time-honoured human settlements of villages and towns than in the modern cities. In large countries such as USA, India and China, different regions have vastly different cultures which had developed over long periods of time based on different languages, divergent landscapes and varied climates. Much of the hinterland of these cultures have remained unaffected by intrusions and influences of other cultures. On the contrary, the cities in these countries, which are relatively more recent human settlements, have attracted people from many parts of the country with these varying cultures, are much more cosmopolitan, and can hardly claim any traditional culture of its own. If this view is accepted, the statement that it is primarily in cities that a nations cultural traditions are preserved and generated has no force. One may perhaps concede that each city has developed certain distinguishing characteristics of its own depending upon its geographic location, what its growth engines were and the ethnic groups which had played a role in its development. Whether these characteristics are worth preserving through priority spending by governments has to be examined on a case-to-case basis. This does not mean that the first sentence in the given proposition, Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive is not valid. Today, in many countries, it is the major cities which hold a disproportionately large number of its citizens in relatively small geographical areas, and much of the nations wealth is generated by them. Also, a large chunk of the economic activity of the nation is concentrated in these cities. It is the cities which house many of the famous universities, which are the hub of intellectual progress. And it is these cities which generate much of the tax revenues of governments. Therefore, I readily agree that governments must ensure that these cities receive necessary financial support to thrive, but not for the reason mentioned in the second part of the proposition. 8

American Education Aids - GRE Writing Assessment

individual citizen can unilaterally decide that a particular law is unjust and then start disobeying it. Chaos will result if this freedom is allowed to individual citizens, and the very fabric of an orderly society will be in danger of getting torn asunder. There have, of course, been historical instances when grossly iniquitous legislation favouring the majority of the population but acting to the detriment of a minority could be got changed by the affected persons only through deliberately disobeying or resisting that law. But this action could not be resorted to by each affected individual, but was orchestrated by a tall and charismatic leader who was willing to face the prescribed consequences of disobeying the law including incarceration. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela were such leaders, but leaders of that calibre come but rarely. Ordinarily, if any citizen feels that a particular law is unjust, he should get it rescinded or nullified by the judiciary through the appropriate procedure, and cannot unilaterally disobey or resist it based on his own personal judgment. I would therefore entirely disagree with the given proposition which, if acted upon, will lead to total anarchy in any civilized society.

12. Only by being forced to defend an idea against the doubts and contrasting views of others does one really discover the value of that idea.
The first part of the proposition is that anyone who propounds a new idea should be capable of defending it against the doubts and contrasting views of others. In fact, this is the time-honoured method used in universities whenever a student has to submit a dissertation as part of his curriculum. The process itself is known as defending the dissertation. The professors whose duty it is to assess the dissertation usually play the role of devils advocates. They grill him with a number of doubts as well as contrasting views. The result of this exercise is: (i) either the student himself realizes that he had made conceptual or logical errors in evolving his thesis, and goes back to correct them; (ii) or the student sharpens his dissertation and gets it more focussed in the light of the brainstorming so that no such doubts as were pointed out are raised again. Another example is the courts of law. An attorney may feel, after hearing the version of only his client relating to the issue in dispute, that he has a simple case to argue for and prepares his arguments accordingly. It is only when he is confronted with doubts about the facts relied on him and also arguments against his legal stand that he is able to sharpen his own ideas and his arguments. The judge too can come to a correct conclusion only after he listens to the arguments of both the contesting sides. I would therefore agree that being forced to defend an idea against the doubts and contrasting views of others is useful for a person either to correct his idea or fine tune it. It is quite likely that, while discussing an idea with others or defending it against doubts and contrasting views, one may discover a use for that idea which one had not thought of earlier. But this may not and need not happen in every case. So, I would not agree with the second part of the proposition that the process of defending ones ideas against doubts or contrasting views is essential for discovering the value of that idea.