GRE Issue essay analyses candidates’ critical thinking abilities to express ideas and thoughts in the form of writing. The issue task requires candidates to be able to present the essay in a well structured and well-planned manner, expressing precise views and arguments. The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones GRE Issue Essay is the topic for GRE Analyse an Issue. The model answer has been given below.

Candidates can consider the following structure to the GRE Issue Essay divided into five paragraphs:

Introduction: Candidates need to first state the issue assigned to them followed by stating the position that the essay would undertake. Further, candidates can consider providing specific reasons and examples the GRE AWA essay would focus on.
Body Paragraph 1: The strongest reason needs to be stated first with supporting examples and logical analysis. This paragraph with reasons should fully support the thesis and be relevant to the topic.
Body Paragraph 2: The second supporting reason should be stated with supporting examples and logical analysis.
Final Paragraph: This paragraph should bring up the counterargument presented as the topic of the GRE Analyse an Issue essay. With the help of a third example and reason, candidates need to show that their perspective is correct and the counterargument is wrong.
Conclusion: The conclusion should remind the reader about the topic of the Issue Essay and state the reasons and examples that proves the candidates’ views to be correct. A summary of the entire essay can be given here.

Based on the structure of the GRE Issue essay, the topic The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones would consider the following strategies to respond:

• Choosing a side and sticking to the position throughout the essay unlike the GRE Analyse an Argument where the given statement of the author needs to be critiqued
• Ensuring relevance and specificity to the real world while stating reasons and examples
• Making strong declarative statements with use of active language and cause and effect statements is important
• Identifying your opposite opinion and then refuting it with two-three sentences is important to conclude the essay with a strong point.

Read More GRE Issue Samples

Topic: The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones GRE Issue Essay

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.

Model Answer

No human being is perfect and are bound to make mistakes in their lives. People indulge in both positive and negative types of actions in their life, some knowingly and some unintentionally. The given statement claims that “The Best Way to Teach is to Praise Positive Actions and Ignore Negative Ones” which I certainly refute. I opine that while encouraging people by praising them for their positive actions is beneficial, ignoring the negative ones can be detrimental to a person as well as for others. The reason that negative actions should not be ignored is because someone might be severely hurt physically or mentally because of a person’s negative action. Ignoring negative actions for long might develop into a habit of repeating the same mistakes and addressing the negative actions might help them learn better rather than ignoring it.

Praising a person for their positive actions encourages them to do better in life and follow a positive path. However, negative actions should not be ignored and one of the biggest reasons for it is because a person might not have the ability to understand that his/her actions hurt or injured someone and the person might end up committing the same mistake again. One of the instances that I can give from my own experience is when I stole money from my mother’s purse for going to watch a movie with my friends. While I knew my mother would not allow me to go watch the movie, I developed the ability to steal which made my parents quite upset. They made me understand that it does not matter whether they allow me to hangout with my friends or not, but stealing anything from someone is a bad action. They encouraged me to tell the truth and I think it did not let me commit the same mistake again.

Another reason why it is important for negative actions to be called out as much as the positive actions getting praised is because any kind of negative action when ignored for a long time might become a habit of the individual. For instance, bullying at school is faced by many students especially by those who are physically unhealthy or maybe because of racist behaviours from others, etc, these negative actions need to be condemned by the teachers themselves. The impact of being bullied at school affects the children’s mental health resulting in anxiety and depression issues which are hardly recognised by parents or others. When the negative action of bullying is ignored, the action does not stop affecting children more and more hence, implying that the negative actions need to be addressed.

The claim that the best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore the negative ones can be beneficial in teaching people some positive traits and allowing them to follow the positive actions. However, ignoring negative traits might teach them to follow the negative actions further. Addressing the negative and encouraging the positive helps in teaching someone better values and actions. For example, when I lied to my parents about scoring the least marks in the Mathematics test despite scoring the highest in the English test and they found my reports later, they addressed my action of lying. While they praised me for my highest scores, they taught me that lying would only result in enduring the action for a longer term and honestly is only the way a person can be rewarded.

While the claims made by the issue of the topic stated that the best way to teach is praising the positive actions and ignoring the negative ones, I have been able to opine that ignoring negative actions encourages further negative actions. Whether it's my act of stealing or lying to my parents or the issue of bullying in school, these negative actions need to be addressed and called out to prevent them from happening further in the future.