

Provides generally thoughtful analysis of complex ideas develops and supports main points with logically sound reasons and/or well-chosen examples is generally focused and well organized uses sentence variety and vocabulary to convey meaning clearly demonstrates good control of sentence structure and language usage, but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning. Sustains insightful, in-depth analysis of complex ideas develops and supports main points with logically compelling reasons and/or highly persuasive examples is well focused and well organized skillfully uses sentence variety and precise vocabulary to convey meaning effectively demonstrates superior facility with sentence structure and language usage, but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning. The test assesses "analytical writing," so critical thinking skills (the ability to reason, assemble evidence to develop a position and communicate complex ideas) are assessed along with the writer's control of grammar and the mechanics of writing (e.g., spelling). The statements below describe, for each score level, the overall quality of analytical writing demonstrated across both the Issue and Argument tasks. The reported score ranges from 0 to 6, in half-point increments. Although the GRE® Analytical Writing measure contains two discrete analytical writing tasks, a single combined score is reported because it is more reliable than a score for either task alone.
