The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) is the first section of the GMAT. This means that apart from being an important part of your score, it also carries psychological weight as it's the first hurdle you'll need to overcome. As you may have gathered by now, the Verbal section doesn't really test knowledge of the English language and the Quantitative section doesn't really test knowledge of algebra. In the same way, the AWA section focuses on your use of logic, clear thinking and analytical skills a lot more than it does on sophisticated vocabulary, witty writing and elegant metaphors.
Capitalization
Note that unlike Microsoft Word, the GMAT software does not automatically capitalize letters for you. Therefore, you need to master the following rules of capitalization and apply them when you write the essays. When proofreading your essay, make sure you capitalized all the words/letters you should have. B. Capitalize the first letter of each word in a proper noun Proper nouns are names of people, places, companies, etc. Examples: John, New York, Dell C. Acronyms Acronyms are words in which each letter stands for a word in itself. CFO = Chief Financial Officer AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. GMAT = Graduate Management Admission Test All the letters of an acronym should be capitalized: CFO, AIDS, GMAT
Writing and separating paragraphs
1. Do not press <enter> after each sentence. Incorrect: First of all, companies need to make a profit to survive. Therefore, companies' revenues should be greater than their expenses. This can be achieved by either increasing revenues or reducing expenses. Correct:First of all, companies need to make a profit to survive. Therefore, companies' revenues should be greater than their expenses. This can be achieved by either increasing revenues or reducing expenses.
Writing and separating paragraphs 2
2. Separation between paragraphs should be done by: (a) Leaving an empty line between two paragraphs. or (b) Starting a new paragraph a little after the beginning of the line (press the <spacebar> 5 times) without leaving an empty line between paragraphs: Correct:First of all, companies need to make a profit to survive. Therefore, companies' revenues should be greater than their expenses. This can be achieved by either increasing revenues or reducing expenses. Secondly, a company needs to have a competitive edge so it can survive. Survival is easier when there is little or no competition. However, when there are many competitors, survival becomes harder. Also correct: First of all, companies need to make a profit to survive. Therefore, companies' revenues should be greater than their expenses. This can be achieved by either increasing revenues or reducing expenses. Secondly, a company needs to have a competitive edge so it can survive. Survival is easier when there is little or no competition. However, when there are many competitors, survival becomes harder.
Punctuation Marks - Sentence enders
A. period (.) A period is the most common, default way of ending sentences. In principle, two sentences should be separated by a period unless they are connected by a conjunction, in which case they will be separated by a comma or by nothing at all. Examples:Incorrect: John loves Jane, he wants to marry her. Correct: John loves Jane. He wants to marry her.Correct: Because John loves Jane, he wants to marry her.Correct: John wants to marry Jane because he loves her. Correct: John loves Jane, so he wants to marry her.
Punctuation Marks: The Colon
A colon informs the reader that what follows is a list, an example or an explanation of what is referred to before. The word that follows a colon does NOT begin with a capital letter. Examples: John likes the following colors: black, white and blue. (A list) There is only one woman John loves more than he loves Jane: his mother. (An explanation) The phrase such as serves the same purpose as a colon does. Therefore, a colon will never follow the phrase such as: Examples: I like classic ice cream flavors such as: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. (Incorrect) I like classic ice cream flavors, such as chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. (Correct)
Punctuation Marks - The Comma
The first use of a comma is to separate different clauses within a sentence. As you may remember, clauses are parts of sentence comprised of a subject and a verb. In order to tell clauses apart, we separate them with a comma. If the clause appears in the middle of the sentence, it is separated by a comma on both sides: I. Separate clauses (each clause is in a different color): John is 26 and lives in Germany, while Jane is 28 and lives in France.John, who works for Doodle, is an excellent programmer.If John were rich, he would buy a yacht. However, notice the following example: John would buy a yacht if he were rich. A comma isn't always used between clauses. There are specific rules for each type of clause, which will be taught separately. For now, you only need to know that a comma can be used to separate clauses. The second usage of a comma is when a part of the sentence is moved to the beginning of the sentence, creating a sentence that does not begin with the subject. In such cases, the relocated sentence part should always be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. II. separate a non-subject sentence beginning from the rest of the sentence. John married Jane in 2007.In 2007, John married Jane. This also applies to certain conjunctions that begin sentences (called Marginals): Consequently, Jane will have to resign. The last and most familiar usage of the comma is to separate items on a list. Even the last item on the list, the one preceded by and, can be separated by a comma. The only case when this does not apply is in lists of two items. III. separate items on a list from each other. The GMAT consists of two essays, a quantitative section, and a verbal section. John and Jane are married. People like John and Jane. (no commas!) Among the people who attended my birthday were my brother, my sister, and mom and dad. (the last item on this list is a two-item list in itself - mom and dad)
