Analyze an IssueEthics & the individual

People should value the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, even when it offers no practical benefit.

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.

Notice how often "no practical benefit" turns out to be premature: knowledge that looks useless frequently becomes essential later. You can defend intrinsic value while also arguing the practical/impractical line is far blurrier than the prompt assumes.

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

Curiosity is part of a flourishing human life, and a culture that values only useful knowledge impoverishes itself, much as it would by valuing only useful art.
"No practical benefit" is often a failure of foresight: seemingly useless inquiry, from number theory to obscure biology, has repeatedly become indispensable.

Against, or complicating

Resources are finite, and with urgent problems unsolved, some argue effort should favor knowledge with a plausible payoff.
"For its own sake" can shade into self-indulgence if it ignores real opportunity costs to society.

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.

1Pure number theory, long considered useless, now underpinning modern cryptography.
2Basic research on an obscure bacterium that later yielded a transformative laboratory tool.
3Curiosity-driven astronomy that expands human understanding without an immediate application.

Watch out

A common trap on this prompt.

Accepting "no practical benefit" as a fixed property of the knowledge. Much apparently useless inquiry becomes useful later, so an essay that treats the categories as permanent misses the strongest counter to the prompt.

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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