Structure for "Analyze an Argument" Essay

A skeleton structure could be:

1. Summarize / paraphrase the argument and its conclusion: This argument cites .... to support ... and thus recommends ... Its rife with several assumptions and thus it is (not) strong enough to lead to ... 
2. Assumption - 1. Elaborate. Unless ... it cannot back the authors argument.
3. Assumption - 2. Elaborate. To strengthen the argument .... author should ...
4. Assumption - 3. Elaborate. Author does not effectively show a connection between ... and ...
5. Conclusion may still happen for few reasons. But, author's argument does not significantly persuade ...

The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at Dura-Sock, Inc.

"A recent study of our customers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented Endure manufacturing process, which ensures that our socks are strong enough to last for two years. We have always advertised our use of the Endure process, but the new study shows that despite our socks' durability, our average customer actually purchases new Dura-Socks every three months. Furthermore, our customers surveyed in our largest market, northeastern United States cities, say that they most value Dura-Socks' stylish appearance and availability in many colors. These findings suggest that we can increase our profits by discontinuing use of the Endure manufacturing process."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

This argument recommends discontinuing the use of a specific manufacturing process step citing the customer preferences and purchase frequency of product. While it may merit the company to discontinue the process, this argument from the vice president is rife with several assumptions.

Vice-President mentions that use of Endure manufacturing process is advertised to customers. However, it is not clear if the advertisement quantified the durability. Due to its terse nature, advertisement might have just highlighted that these stocks stay usable on a relative scale when compared with that of competitor products. 

Building on the durability aspect, author connects the knowledge of customers to frequency of their socks purchase. Higher demand may be attributed to sudden burst in population because of industrial revolution. Or, the purchase frequency might be skewed without the consideration of seasonal demands. Its normal to assume that winters may demand more socks. Increase of sales is what a company should dream of and this is not a convincing reason to reduce product quality.

Author cites a survey to highlight customer preference of style over durability but does not support the argument with details of this survey. Along with the sampling of users from largest market, its also important to understand how many customers participated and if the survey was conducted across seasons. The scope and validity of the survey is thus dubious to lead to any conclusion.

Most importantly, its unclear how much profit would accrue if the Endure manufacturing process was discontinued. The process might be a low cost step and hence could be a good value addition for the sell-ability of socks and to differentiate from its customers. In fact, removing this differentiation may actually lead to reduced profits if the market share swings towards the competitor.

Author's intention to increase the profits through the discontinuation of Endure manufacturing process would have been stronger with data on the ROI (Return of Investment) over a period of time across its markets. The arguments proposing the termination of a process step are thus too weak to be acceptable.

Perception - Personality or Training?

The way students and scholars interpret the materials they work with in their academic fields is more a matter of personality than of training. Different interpretations come about when people with different personalities look at exactly the same objects, facts, data, or events and see different things.

Do not agree. There are exceptions, though.
Why interpretations are not different? Small world, Standardized curriculum, Mathematics, Chemistry, etc.
Exceptions - Laptop distribution - student of political science may see it as a way to gather votes. other, may see it as an attempt to alleviate illiteracy. British imperialism 

Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and the legal system because moral behaviour cannot be legislated.

Dissecting the problem: problems of modern society,  legistlation of moral behaviour. 
My Stand: True. There are many problems (not all) of modern society that cannot be solved by laws/legal system. Moral behaviour cannot be legislated. And many of these problems are connected to the need to have a moral behaviour.
Support: Example problems (in the modern society and connected to moral behaviour) that cannot be solved by legislature? Lack of community help. Corruption. Quality of service.
Support: Can there be other reasons beyond moral behaviour? Some examples?
Conclusion: Along with laws, we also need moral responsibility.

GRE Essay: Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.

Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

Educational institutions have humongous responsibility in helping a student develop and understand his passion and potential. Educational institutions and the wisdom of its faculty and staff lay the stepping stone to a synergistic relationship between a student's success and the society's needs. A lot of thinking goes in curriculum development, staffing, course delivery, moral and physical education in these institutions. Certainly, educational institutions must engage in helping a student succeed. However, a student's passion may be influenced by several factors outside of the institutional boundaries. These passions should not be dissuaded. Educational institutions should play a role of mentor and let the students decide the future for themselves.

Selection of a field of study has been a challenge for students. If there are two ingredients for success, they are passion and potential. Every student is different. Each student has a different level of passion and potential towards different fields of study. Moreover, these interests and skills are highly temporal . I wanted to become a aircraft pilot when I was in my sixth grade. During my ninth grade, my interests shifted towards computer science. I did not like biology solely for the reason that I hated dissecting frogs and cockroaches. As I grew up into high school, university and beyond, my choices became narrower. Note that the interplay of passion and potential formed the pillar of my selection of specialization.

Clearly, the choices exist during the early stages of our schooling. Educational institutions play a big role in developing these passions and potential in us. We spend a major part of our childhood in schools. The educational system and the values that they inculcate in us greatly determine the potential in us. I still remember my mathematics teacher. Her inspirational and enjoyable maths sessions gave a special perspective to this subject. I aced almost all exams in mathematics and it still remains to be a favorite subject. From potential develops passion for many of us. Application of mathematics in empirical modeling, computational finance and probability theory turned out to be my field of study.

However, its not just the educational institutions that influence us. One of my friends wanted to became a magician inspired by one of his neighbors and few television shows. While its not hard to find a movie hero's fan or who worships a sport-star, we can safely say that there are many such forces that direct our interests.

Given all these, there are limits to what educational institutions can do. While helping to identify the potential and passions, it can only indicate where we are likely to succeed. However, our influences sometimes are too strong to undermine our knowledge and force us to venture into new waters. This need not be bad in all situations. For instance, my friend who was inspired towards magic, is now an established magician. He does not regret dropping out of his university or leaving his comfort area which was then chemistry. Our schooling was demanding. Parents and some friends did not share the passion. Clearly, potential was unproven. Yet, the risk that he took, paid off. There are several such success stories. Bill Gates, the famous Microsoft founder was a college drop out. These people found their passion themselves and had a strong belief on their potential. They were willing to go against the tide. They became successful.

However, all those who swim against the current, may not be successful. There is only one Bill Gates and there are probably a million who failed on the same path. There are many who took the advise that their schooling provided and are now successful. Educational institutions have a responsibility to help their students identify true passion and potential. In an age where one can get easily distracted, these institutions must direct the students towards successful future. However, they should not underestimate the other forces acting upon the students. They, most certainly, should not dissuade students from what they believe will not make the student successful. 

GRE Essay: To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities

To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.

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

Cities carry significant population density. Cities evolve faster than the rest of the society. While cities are typically vibrant and fast-changing, they may not reflect the true characteristics of a society. Most of the cities of current era are multicultural and the societal idiosyncrasies are blurring. While McDonalds and KFC were once marks of United States, they are easy to spot in all major cities. Cities have become busy abodes of wealth creation. Cities attract talent from all societies to immigrate and thus give a strong flavor of business attitude than a true reflection of societal values. Every city has similar setup and facilities such as malls, multiplex, universities, business centers, car dealers and so on.

Important characteristics of the society include cultural elements such as clothing, human values and language that do not exist in its original form in the cities. While saree remains to be associated with Indian women, its much more common to see american influence on Indian women's dressing preferences in major Indian cities. From a culture that advocates helping each other and staying in a joint family, present city life characterizes earning potential, cut-throat competition and business politics. Most cities now speak English. Given all these, its pretty evident that city may not be the best place to understand important characteristics of society.

True picture of a society lies in its core villages. Take Finland for example. Helsinki is far less an example of the beautiful snow-clad Lapland that we would associate Santa-Claus for. When we think about India and Gandhi, we associate Khadi, a variety of clothing spun from cotton. Present day Ahmedabad (the city close to where Gandhi lived) is now a business hub with huge entrepreneurial interest. Several miles away, deep inside the villages, we can see the unadulterated society.

However, if we are cognizant about the adulteration one could expect, study of cities could throw some light. For example, every school and university organizes cultural shows. Museums and art theaters exist only in cities. The snapshots from best of the society is captured and documented. The same knowledge that might take several months to gain, otherwise, could be easily obtained by visiting such heritage centers belonging to cities within few hours.

In essence, we may consider that the study of cities may give us the knowledge we are looking for. However, if one wants to truly experience the important characteristics of the society and see living examples, cities are not the best place.

Preparing for the GRE Essay & Persuasive Writing

Specifically to succed in GRE essays and in general to do a good job with persuasive writing, its important to frame a lucid and coherent structure of response before developing it into a complete form. Here's an attempt to take few topics, take a position and build a structure.Typically, we could expand each line item into a paragraph with examples to support the claim.

Technology creates more problems than it solves, and may threaten or damage the quality of life

Disagree. However, technology may have side-effects perceived as problems.
Technology improves the quality of life. Eg: Transportation, Natural Calamity warnings, Social Web
Problems perceived as side-effects of technology. Eg: Miscreants with SMS, Bad use of social networks
There will always be problems to solve (with or without/ because or not-because of technology). Eg: stone-age was not better.

The material progress and well-being of one country are necessarily connected to the material progress and well-being of all other countries

Disagree. Progress is connected to some extent. However, not necessarily true for all countries.
Why progress is connected? Emigration for education, World capital markets are linked, Printing more currency does not help any individual economy.
Exceptions: Pursuit of Idealism like technology is bad, education in local language, reservations based on caste, freedom for women
Progress is connected to a great extent. However, depending upon the geo-political ideals/values, some countries choose to take different path to what they term as progress.

Instead of encouraging conformity, society should show greater appreciation of individual differences

Individual differences exist and should be appreciated. However, there should be limitations to the exhibition of these differences in the context of greater conformity. Both should be ecouraged/appreciated.
Individual differences are good. Eg: Opposition party vs ruling government. Bring several issues to the fore. cultural differences. Eating habits. 
Encouraging conformity. Eg: Democratic countries. Need to make progress. 
Appreciate differences but learn to conform at a higher level.

The most elusive knowledge is self-knowledge, and it is usually acquired through solitude, rather than through interaction with others.

Agree. We rarely know what we want and are unhappy most of the times. This has to come from within.
Why self-knowledge is most elusive? distractions of money, time, relationships, respect.
How solitude can help? Eminents visit himalayas for meditation! yoga, mind therapy
Search from within and see the pearls of wisdom.

The best preparation for life or a career is not learning to be competitive, but learning to be cooperative

This is my attempt at a GRE "Analyze an Issue" Essay topic. Read on.

With ever increasing population and the economic downturn around the world, a satisfactory life and career have been continuously challenged. While competition and cooperation have their own independent merits, one has to be both competitive and cooperative to succeed.

Cooperation brings more ideas, empowers innovation and avoids re-inventing the wheel. Only one author might be sighted on a book. However, within the first few pages of the book, author typically acknowledges the effort of many without whose contributions, the book could not have been published. While its so challenging and competitive to enter a great academic institution such as Tepper or Wharton, you will notice that they teach team-work once you are in.

Being competitive is no more a choice. Unemployment rate has been gradually increasing. Layoffs have become common. Cost of living has also been on the rise. To make a good living, a good job is necessary. Further, a good job is easier to find if you have a good education. You need to be competitive to be even invited for a job interview. Further, competition brings out the best in us. Healthy competition challenges complacency and keeps us on the move.

Cooperation without competence leads to the "yes-man" syndrome and inappropriate conformity. Lack of competition lowers the bar of quality and innovation. Present day education system in emerging countries is a classic example. Teachers are highly incompetent. Best talent emigrate or find lucrative corporate jobs. These students, however highly cooperative they are, hardly stand up to compete with their established counterparts from institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Carnegie or Berkeley.

At the same time, competition without cooperation leads to unnecessary rework and severely limits the scale of accomplishments. Best research outputs come as a result of team-work. Even sports such as Chess that are played between individuals thrive on the pillars of both competition and cooperation. The great chess masters Kasparov and Anand have always praised and attributed their success to their team of advisers.

In conclusion, there are living examples of people who were successful because they were both cooperative and competitive. Either cooperation or competition on its own cannot be a royal road to success. Together, these qualities build a person with felicitous character.