Analyze an IssueSociety & culture

To understand a society, we should study the works of its most celebrated artists rather than the records of its rulers.

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.

Ask what each source actually reveals, and about whom. Art often captures the values, anxieties, and everyday texture of a people; official records capture power, law, and administration. A strong essay argues they illuminate different layers rather than ranking one as superior.

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

Art can preserve the inner life and daily experience of ordinary people that dry official records omit entirely.
Rulers' records are often propaganda written by the victors, so they can mislead about a society more than art does.

Against, or complicating

"Most celebrated" artists are an elite, curated sample, so their work may reflect patrons and tastes rather than the wider society.
Administrative records, such as tax rolls and censuses, reveal the concrete conditions of ordinary life that celebrated art rarely documents.

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.

1Dutch Golden Age genre painting depicting ordinary domestic life alongside the era's state records.
2Pompeii, where graffiti and household objects reveal daily life more vividly than any official decree.
3Soviet-era samizdat literature exposing what official state records concealed.

Watch out

A common trap on this prompt.

Choosing one source and dismissing the other. The richest understanding usually triangulates art and records, and an essay that pretends one alone suffices overstates its case.

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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