How to Excel AWA, bringing the research simplified to the students of GMAT, GRE & TOEFL

1. How to Excel AWA, bringing the research simplified to the students of GMAT, GRE & TOEFL By Satyadhar Joshi shivgan3@yahoo.com http://www.freegregmatclass.com/ http://onlineclasses.nanotechbiz.org/

2. Contents of Plan • What is E rater • How to optimize you score • Research on the structure of e rater • Basic errors of grammar derived from GMAT • Minimizing errors using critical reading of your own essay • Building basic Pre-knowledge • Sample Essays • Conclusion http://www.ets.org/research/capabilities/automated_scoring www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/awintro.pdf

3. Scoring Graph for GRE http://www.powerscore.com/gre/help/scoringscale.cfm

4. Three Domains • E-Rater • Grammar and Punctuations • Extra Idioms and examples

5. Nova GRE AW is similar to GMAT Grammar • Punctuations • Usage • Pronoun Errors • Subject Verb Agreement • Misplaced Modifiers • Faulty Parallelism • Faulty verb tense • Idioms

6. Punctuations (you need to know) • Commas • Semi colons • Dashes • Apostrophes • Sentence fragmentation • Run on Sentence

7. Usages Examples • Pronoun Error • Subject verb agreement • Misplaced modifiers • Faulty parallelism • Faulty verb tense • Faulty Idiom

8. Misplaced modifiers

9. Introduction to E-rater (GRE-GMAT) • It’s a software developed by ETS • It is used to rate Essays • Very sophisticated techniques used The E-rater favors transitional words • Ordinal numbers that introduce examples or reasons: first, second, third, first of all, etc. • Transitional words that relate each sentence to other: since, because, therefore, thus, etc. • Mood words that indicate the author's position: fail, ignore, overestimate, underestimate, exaggerate, misrepresent, overlook, etc. • Counter-evidence indicators: actually, despite, admittedly, except, even though, nonetheless, nevertheless, although, however, in spite of, do, does, may, might, etc.

10. Some experts advice that: • to use transitional words • to include a topic sentence in every paragraph • that the e-rater is very sensitive to spelling and grammatical mistakes (contrary to the real GRE) and • is not sensitive at all to the intuition of your writing and to the organization of your essay (e.g. the e-rater never identified my main point). Taking all these into consideration I took one more test and guess what.... 6/6 although my ideas where a little bid stupid, my examples where out of place and the e-rater did not identify any main idea in my essays. Just I had to take care to give a LENGTHY and free of mistakes essay.

11. Length • First note that your essay will be graded by an e-rater, which is software that checks your essay for structural keywords and overall organization. Then it will be graded by a human grader who has about 2 minutes to read each essay. • According to Princeton Review "Cracking the GMAT," more length is better to get a high score from the e-rater (software that ). However 800score suggests that going on and on will irritate the human grader. I have read in a number of places that 300-500 words is a good length.

12. Criterion (ETS) • The Criterion® Online Writing Evaluation service provides instructors and students with reliable evaluations of English-language essays. • It delivers immediate score reporting and diagnostic feedback that students can use to revise and resubmit their essays. • Instructors can use their own topics or select from the Criterion topic library of more than 400 essay assignments at various skill levels. http://www.ets.org/criterion

13. Controversial Areas pertaining to Essay • Human vs. Machine • It does not assess specific content knowledge • ETS Essay-Similarity-Detection Software http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/awintro.pdf

14. Essay writing has these basic functions • Grammar • Content (Examples related to the essay) • Critical Reasoning • Idioms • Punctuation • Triggering words • Arguments and counter arguments

15. ETS says:

16. EST further says:

17. Evaluating Multiple Aspects of Coherence in Student Essays http://www.aclweb.org/anthology-new/N/N04/N04-1024.pdf

18. Exploring the Feedback and Revision Features of CriterionYigalAttali ETS, Princeton, NJPaper presented at the National Council on Measurement in Education Summary • Relation of length to grade • Critique, is comprised of a suite of programs that evaluates and provides feedback for errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics, identifies the essay’s discourse structure, and recognizes undesirable stylistic features • The writing analysis tools identify five main types of grammar, usage, and mechanics errors – agreement errors, verb formation errors, wrong word use, missing punctuation, and typographical errors. http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/erater_NCME_2004_Attali_B.pdf

19. Types of error http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/erater_NCME_2004_Attali_B.pdf

20. Grammar Errors http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/erater_NCME_2004_Attali_B.pdf

21. Three main errors in Grammar • Be very careful about fragmented sentences. • Possessive errors of vs. ’s • Subject Very Agreement • Garbled sentences

22. Usage Errors in Essay

23. Style Errors

24. Devastating errors Below are the ranking of most costly errors which can take your score down: • Garbled sentences • Repetition of words • Missing Apostrophe • Fused Words • Capital Nouns • Inappropriate use of words or phases

25. Garbled Words • I cdnuoltblveieetaht I cluodaulacltyunesdnatnrdwaht I was rdgnieg>The phaonmnealpweor of the hmuanmnidaoccdrnig to a rscheearch at > CmabrigdeUinervtisy, it deosn'tmattaer in whahtoredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olnyiprmoatnttihng is taht the frist and lsatltteer be in the rghitpclae. The rset can be a taotlmses and you can sitllraed it wouthit a porbelm.

26. Framing of Paragraph • First and last lines are important • Conveying words are important use all of them • Idioms are important • Paragraphs should have sentences of good length • Writing strategy must includes an introductory paragraph, at least a three-paragraph body with each paragraph in the body consisting of a pair of main point and supporting idea elements, and a concluding paragraph. • Missing elements could include supporting ideas for up to the three expected main points or a missing introduction, conclusion, or main point. On the other hand, identification of main points beyond the minimum three would not contribute to the score.

28. Using pre-knowledge • Examples are important • One area of each examples that the E-rater understand

29. Idioms • Lexicon complexity is an important parameter, use as many good words as possible Book: ChandreshAgrawal, CAT PriyankaPrakshan

30. Punctuations One of the most important area of Essays • Comma (series, introduction, clauses, interjections, conjunction) • Use of comma with transition words • Helps in avoided choppy sentences • Semi Colons: To join two independent clauses, to separate items in series Page 508 of Book: Nova’s GRE

31. Style • Transition • Figurative language • Dictions

32. Arsenals for cases & Examples • Science • Philosophy • Arts • Politics

33. Pre-knowledge on USA • Areas to Quote examples in Essay can be: • American freedom History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States • George Washington ( the first president of USA), current BarackObama • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington • Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led the country through the American Civil War, and ended slavery. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln • Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, leader in the African American civil rights movement. Worked for civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

34. Scientist • Thomas Alva Edison (American; Bulb, camera, etc) • Sergey M. Brin & Lawrence E. Page(Google) • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton (English) • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan • Genetics and evolution are most topics: Charles Darwin • Big Bang

35. Artists • Michelangelo (Italy) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo • Pablo Picasso (France) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso • Leonardo da Vinci (Italy) Painter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Rockwell

36. Politics & Wars • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union • Benito Mussolini (World War 2) • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana,_Princess_of_Wales • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa • World is Flat: Thomas Friedman

37. Economics • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_yuan • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol • World Bank and International Monetary Fund • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett

38. Sample Essay Content "Societies should try to save every plant and animal species, regardless of the expense to humans in effort, time, and financial well-being.” • PETA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_Ethical_Treatment_of_Animals • Kyoto Protocol • Global Warming & Carbon Tax • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Fund_for_Nature WWF • Framing/ Grammar/ Punctuations / etc will reduce marks

39. GRE Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Topic – 72 (ETS) • "The true value of a civilization is reflected in its artistic creations rather than in its scientific accomplishments.“ • All planning will help you

40. A few of GRE Analytical Writing ISSUES & Essay Topics (source ETS) • "Most societies do not take their greatest thinkers seriously, even when they claim to admire them.” • "The best ideas arise from a passionate interest in commonplace things." • "It is more important to allocate money for immediate, existing social problems than to spend it on long-term research that might help future generations.“ • "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 most effective way to understand contemporary culture is to analyze the trends of its youth.“ • “When someone achieves greatness in any field — such as the arts, science, politics, or business — that person’s achievements are more important than any of his or her personal faults.” http://www.testpreppractice.net/GRE/awa-samples/gre-awa-essay-samples.html

41. More topics • It is necessary for everyone to read poetry, novels, mythology and other types of imaginative literature. • 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. • 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 nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated. • All nations should help support the development of a global university designed to engage students in the process of solving the world's most persistent social problems.

42. The Argument Essay • Argument in the official test bank contains 3-5 major logical fallacies • Drawing an unfair analogy (ignoring relevant dissimilarities between two things when comparing them) • Generalizing from particulars (relying on a small number of particular cases — too small to reach a reliable general conclusion) • Confusing chronology with causation (because one event occurs after another, the earlier event caused the later event) • Go for breadth, not depth. • what additional information is needed to better evaluate the argument, and/or • what additional evidence (facts) would serve to strengthen the argument. http://majortests.com/gre/argument.php

43. Argument (GRE Barrons) • Identify claims • Question the claims • Write body • And introduction and summary at the last • Re Read and revise

44. Inductive vs Deductive Logic • Generalization • Analogy • Causal Reasoning

45. Logical Fallacies • Contradiction • Equivocation • Circular Reasoning • Shifting the Burdon of Proof • Unwarranted assumption • Appeal to authority • Personal Attack • True but irrelevant

46. Structure • Restate • Assumption • Never address • Omits important evidence • Conclusion

47. Support Signaling words • For example • For instance • Let me illustrate • Such as • Additional reason • Additionally • Also • Furthermore • In Addition • Likewise • Moreover

48. Contrast Signaling words • Although • But • Despite • Even though • Except • However • In Contrast • In Spite of • Nevertheless • On the contrary • On the other hand • Rather than

49. Cause and effect signal words • Accordingly • Consequently • For this reason • In conclusion • So .. That • In summary

50. Arguments • All the arguments will be seriously flawed. You will lose marks if you do not identify the major faults. The main categories of logical error that you should be able to spot are: Generalizations • Problems with surveys and statistics • False causes • False analogies • Hidden assumptions • Inadequate authority