Analyze an IssueGovernment & policy

A nation's leaders should prioritize long-term environmental protection even when doing so slows short-term economic growth.

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.

Interrogate the assumed trade-off. "Even when" concedes that protection sometimes slows growth, but a sharp essay questions how often and for how long that is really true, and points out that unpriced environmental damage is itself a hidden cost to future growth.

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

Environmental damage is frequently irreversible, so a growth gain today can be dwarfed by permanent losses, such as a collapsed fishery or a flooded coastline.
Future generations cannot vote or bargain, so leaders are the only actors positioned to weigh their interests against present convenience.

Against, or complicating

For a low-income nation, near-term growth can mean food, medicine, and stability, and demanding it sacrifice that for the long term can be both unjust and politically impossible.
"Long-term protection" can be used as cover for policies that never deliver, so a blanket priority risks entrenching costly measures with little environmental return.

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.

1Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which turned finite oil revenue into a long-term national asset rather than a one-time boom.
2The Montreal Protocol phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals despite short-term industrial cost.
3A rapidly industrializing economy weighing coal-driven growth against long-run air-quality and climate costs.

Watch out

A common trap on this prompt.

Accepting the growth-versus-environment trade-off as permanent and total. Much environmental protection is itself an investment in future economic capacity, and ignoring that flattens the argument.

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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