What is an Argument?

    A strong argument attempts to persuade the reader to accept a point of view. As such, it consists of a proposition, a declarative statement which is capable of being argued, and a proof, a reason or ground which is supported by evidence. The evidence, in turn, is composed of relevant facts, opinions based on facts and careful reasoning. If you are analyzing an argument, you should look for both of these: a proposition and the evidence supporting the proposition.

    Attack the Argument

    Each argument''s stimulus has been intentionally "loaded" with flaws (fallacies) that you should acknowledge and discuss. If you fail to see the more fundamental problems in the argument, you will not get a high score.

    The purpose of the essay is for you to critique the reasoning in the argument (the stimulus will tell you to make this evaluation). Your personal opinions are not relevant. Your essay needs to focus on flaws in the argument. While in the Analysis of Issue you write your opinion on a subject, in the Analysis of Argument you write a logical critique of a flawed argument. Thus, the approaches to the two essays should be different.

    縱觀整個(gè)GRE作文考試，似乎應(yīng)該概括為“Issue讓我們變得廣博，Argument讓我們成為辯手”，Argument也是我在新東方課堂上最喜歡的一個(gè)教學(xué)環(huán)節(jié)，因?yàn)槲蚁矚g辯論，過(guò)去參加辯論賽是和人在進(jìn)行辯論，現(xiàn)在講GRE，是在和一篇又一篇的文章進(jìn)行文字辯論，他們之間存在極大的共性，那么如何去“辯”，如何讓我們能如同當(dāng)年在辯論賽上征服對(duì)方辯手一樣地去征服GRE的Argument寫(xiě)作呢？ ETS對(duì)這部分的要求體現(xiàn)在：第一，要求考試敏銳的洞察出一篇文章的主要的幾點(diǎn)邏輯錯(cuò)誤（沒(méi)有必要把所有的邏輯錯(cuò)誤全部找出）；第二，既然是攻擊對(duì)方文章的邏輯錯(cuò)誤，那么考生本生所寫(xiě)的文章要有邏輯性，或者說(shuō)邏輯合理性；第三，一篇Argument的用詞用句有他特定的風(fēng)格（和Issue有所區(qū)別），因此考生要選擇準(zhǔn)確恰當(dāng)?shù)脑~句表達(dá)。Argument的結(jié)構(gòu)比較固定，易于掌握，一般都能寫(xiě)出個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的“經(jīng)典5段式”，為了寫(xiě)好這種模式，這種文章的關(guān)鍵是抓住邏輯錯(cuò)誤，這是拿到高分的第一點(diǎn)，最重要的一點(diǎn)。如果寫(xiě)了很多，沒(méi)抓住要害，語(yǔ)言再好也拿不到高分。攻擊的語(yǔ)言可以不專(zhuān)業(yè)化，但是抓住錯(cuò)誤最關(guān)鍵。如果文字色彩很專(zhuān)業(yè)化，可以表現(xiàn)出邏輯修養(yǎng)，攻擊的很地道，當(dāng)然可以增加分值，寫(xiě)作時(shí)間為30分鐘。