Analyze an IssueEthics & the individual

It is sometimes necessary for individuals to break established rules in order to bring about meaningful change.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning. In developing and supporting your position, consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true, and explain how those considerations shape your view.

Write your response

Give yourself 30 minutes, then get an instant estimate against the official rubric.

Issue prompt

Your essay0 words

An expert estimate against the official rubric, not an official ETS score. ETS scores with a human reader plus the e-rater engine.

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How to approach it

A reliable structure for any Issue prompt.

1Take a clear position in the first paragraph. The reader should know exactly where you stand on the issue before the body begins.
2Develop two or three reasons, each with a specific example. Depth beats a long list of thin points.
3Answer the strongest counter-argument. Engaging the other side is what separates a 5 from a 4.
4Leave two minutes to proofread. A few clean sentences at the end lift the language score.

For the full 0–6 band descriptors and what each score means, see the AWA grader guide.

This prompt

How to approach this prompt.

The word "sometimes" makes this easy to agree with and hard to make interesting, so the real work is specifying the conditions. Argue for the criteria that separate justified rule-breaking from mere lawlessness: an unjust rule, exhausted lawful options, and a willingness to accept consequences.

Both sides

Points for and against.

A strong essay does not just pick a side. Weigh the best case each way, then explain which considerations shape your own view.

In support

Some rules are themselves unjust, and history's clearest moral progress often required people to defy laws that lawful means could not change in time.
Rules encode the status quo, so a system with no tolerance for principled rule-breaking can entrench injustice indefinitely.

Against, or complicating

"Necessary" is a high bar, and most change is achieved through lawful means, so rule-breaking should be a last resort, not a first instinct.
Once individuals decide which rules to break, the same logic excuses harmful lawbreaking, so the principle needs strict limits to avoid inviting chaos.

Evidence

Examples you could use.

Specific, relevant examples are what readers reward most. Here are concrete cases you could adapt for this exact statement. Use them as reasoning, not as facts to recite.

1Rosa Parks and the civil-rights sit-ins, deliberate lawbreaking aimed at unjust laws.
2Whistleblowers who break confidentiality rules to expose serious wrongdoing.
3Someone who breaks a minor rule for personal gain and wrongly claims the mantle of principled protest.

Watch out

A common trap on this prompt.

Agreeing with "sometimes" and stopping there. Because the claim is easy to accept, the essay's value lies entirely in specifying the conditions under which rule-breaking is justified, not in the yes-or-no.

Questions

GRE essay questions, answered.

There is no required word count. High-scoring Analyze an Issue essays are typically well-developed across four to six paragraphs, roughly 400 to 600 words, but a reader rewards depth of reasoning and specific support, not raw length. A tight, fully developed 450-word essay outscores a padded 700-word one.

The GRE Analytical Writing task is scored holistically from 0 to 6 in half-point steps against the official ETS descriptors. The reported score averages one trained human reader and the e-rater engine; if they disagree by more than a point, a second human reader adjudicates. It is reported separately from the 260 to 340 Verbal and Quant total.

No. This is an original prompt written in the official Analyze an Issue style so you can practise freely. The real ETS pool is published on the ETS website. Practising on same-style prompts builds the exact skills the scored task rewards, since every Issue prompt uses the same task instructions and the same rubric.

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