So far in this tutorial we've suggested that you summarize for and against your argument in the introductory and concluding paragraphs, that you provide evidence in the form of concrete arguments, that you take a stance, and that you provide concrete examples to help support your opinion. Luckily, there is an easy way to organize all of these ideas and there is a simple thing that you can do to help you structure your essay -- and that is through the use of spider graphs. If you don't know about spider graphs, well then don't worry -- they are as easy as 1 - 2 - 3.
- On the provided scratch paper for the GRE, write down the specific details of the issue topic that you have selected. For example, if the issue topic is: "Governments should provide funding for artists so that the arts can flourish and be available to all people.", you could write down "governments", "funding", "artists", "flourish". Write down the main ideas of the issue topic and draw a circle around these. The purpose of this is to centralize your thesis and create a platform from which you will expand your essay.
- From this main circle that you have just drawn, draw three, four, or five lines extending equally outwards. At the ends of each of these lines, jot down a statement that support or refutes the issue topic in the center. For example, using the topic stated in part 1, you could write the following three arguments:
- Funding the arts is not a good idea because art is too expensive and money can be spend better elsewhere
- Funding the arts is a good idea because it forces people to engage in artistic endeavors, and the social and educational value of the resulting paintings, sculptures, etc. cannot be measured in terms of money
- Funding the arts is a good idea because it fosters competition and thus encourages artistic ideas to blossom
- Now for each of the arguments that you have listed for step 2, include at least one specific example that helps elucidate or confirm that argument. For example, selecting the second argument that funding is a good idea because the product far outweighs the monetary profits needed, you may note that the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC or the Sistine Chapel in Rome, while at the time were very costly and required quite a bit of funding to be completed, in the long run have benefited many people and have fostered new generations of artists and have helped inspire young people.
Not only does a spider graph help you focus your ideas, it also serves as the outline of the essay. Having sketched the spider graph, the central circle becomes the introductory paragraph, each of the outlying arguments and associated examples become successive paragraphs, and the concluding paragraph is a composite of the central circle (a reiteration) enforced with a summary of the different arguments.