<p>I am applying to EE graduate program in 2009, and I am curious about whether my AW score will hurt me in the admission process.</p>
<p>GRE stat:
790 Q, 560 V, 3.5 AW.</p>
<p>Since in general a SOP is submitted as part of an application, wouldn't SOP be more indicative of an applicant's writing ability?</p>
<p>I don't think you have too much to worry about given that you are applying to EE programs. Additionally, most programs have not yet developed a comprehensive assessment of the AW which most likely means that your 3.5 won't be a deciding factor. </p>
<p>I too received a 3.5 AW and I am applying to Journalism Programs (ouch- I know). I am beyond pulling my hair out at this stage. I just hope my clips, SOP and writing samples will give the Ad comms a better idea of my writing abilities.</p>
<p>Actually, there is a whole thread on this topic at the "other" grad-school forum (gradcafe.com). A lot of people who are professional writers or proofreaders come out with low scores. For instance, I had a major article published in a peer-reviewed journal, and I may have my first book published in the coming year, and I scored a 3.5 the first time out (4.0 the second time).</p>
<p>Several folks have indicated, although ETS doesn't publish this fact, that they are looking for five-paragraph, Ciceronian-style oratory:</p>
<ol>
<li> Introduction</li>
<li> Preview of points</li>
<li> Positive proof</li>
<li> Rebuttal of other points of view</li>
<li> Conclusion</li>
</ol>
<p>Who knows? All we can be certain of is that ETS is making a killing off of our misery :(</p>
<p>I don't know if that's what they're looking for. I didn't write in 5-paragraph format, but received a 6 anyway. I think the biggest help was taking some formal logic which gave me the tools to easily refute the pathetic argument for the first essay and then prove a point in the second. I didn't attempt to refute the entire argument (something about bootstrapping the prestige of a college department by hiring more prestigious professors) but rather focused on a few critical problems, especially begging the question in the premises and a flagrant argumentum ad popularium, which were easy to exploit. For the second item, I attempted to show that both film and text media are necessary to document our history (instead of one being inherently superior over the other) through a deductive argument meaning I simply had to establish that the items able to be documented by film or text were not identical and therefore one could not show one was "better" overall.</p>
<p>I received a 5.5 by for basically "dissing" the arguments as well.
They were pretty pathetic arguments too.</p>
<p>I write for a living and got a 4.0. It's crap.</p>
<p>I don't think writing skills are particularly important for these things; rather, it seems that they are just looking for logical arguments presented in a sensible manner.</p>