GMAT Style Checklist

On the GMAT, there are three rules of thumb for successful writing: be concise, be forceful, and be correct. Following these rules is a sure way to improve your writing style—and your score. Let’s look at each one in more depth.

Be Concise

• Cut out words, phrases, and sentences that don’t add any information or serve a necessary purpose.
• Watch out for repetitive phrases such as “refer back” or “absolutely essential.”
• Don’t use conjunctions to join sentences that would be more effective as separate sentences.
• Don’t use needless qualifiers such as “really” or “kind of.”

Examples

Wordy: The agency is not prepared to undertake expansion at this point in time.

Concise: The agency is not ready to expand.

Redundant: All of these problems have combined together to create a serious crisis.

Concise: Combined, these problems create a crisis.

Too many qualifiers: Ferrara seems to be sort of a slow worker.

Concise: Ferrara works slowly.

Be Forceful

• Don’t refer to yourself needlessly. Avoid pointless phrases like “in my personal opinion”; even phrases such as “I agree” or “I think” are considered stylistically weak.
• Avoid jargon and pompous language; it won’t impress anybody. For example, “a waste of time and money” is better than “a pointless expenditure of temporal and financial resources.”
• Don’t use the passive voice. Use active verbs whenever possible.
• Avoid clichés and overused terms or phrases (for example, “beyond the shadow of a doubt”).
• Don’t be vague. Avoid generalizations and abstractions when more specific words would be clearer.
• Don’t use weak sentence openings. Be wary of sentences that begin with “there is” or “there are.” For example, “There are several ways in which this sentence is awkward” should be rewritten as “This sentence is awkward in several ways.”
• Don’t be monotonous; vary sentence length and style.
• Use transitions to connect sentences and make your essay easy to follow.

Examples

Needlessly references self: Although I am no expert, I do not think privacy should be valued more than social concerns.

Speaks confidently: Privacy should not be valued more than social concerns.

Uses passive voice: The report was compiled by a number of field anthropologists and marriage experts.

Uses active voice: A number of field anthropologists and marriage experts compiled the report.

Opens weakly: It would be of no use to fight a drug war without waging a battle against demand for illicit substances.

Opens strongly: The government cannot fight a drug war effectively without waging a battle against the demand for illicit substances.

Uses cliché: A ballpark estimate of the number of fans in the stadium would be 120,000.

Employs plain English: About 120,000 fans were in the stadium.

Be Correct

• Observe the rules of standard written English. The most important rules are covered in the Sentence Correction chapter of this book.

Examples

Subject and verb disagree: Meredith, along with her associates, expect the sustainable energy proposal to pass.

Subject and verb agree: Meredith, along with her associates, expects the sustainable energy proposal to pass.

Uses faulty modification: Having worked in publishing for 10 years, Stokely’s resume shows that he is well qualified.

Uses correct modification: Stokely, who has worked in publishing for 10 years, appears from his resume to be well qualified.

Uses pronouns incorrectly: A retirement community offers more activities than a private dwelling does, but it is cheaper.

Uses pronouns correctly: A retirement community offers more activities than a private dwelling does, but a private dwelling is cheaper.

Has unparallel structure: The dancer taught her understudy how to move, how to dress, and how to work with choreographers and deal with professional competition.

Has parallel structure: The dancer taught her understudy how to move, dress, work with choreographers, and deal with professional competition.

Fragmented sentence: There is time to invest in property. After one has established oneself in the business world, however.

Complete sentence: There is time to invest in property, but only after one has established oneself in the business world.

Run-on sentence: Antonio just joined the athletic club staff this year, however, because Barry has been with us since 1975, we would expect Barry to be more skilled with the weight-lifting equipment.

Correct sentence: Antonio joined the athletic club staff this year. However, because Barry has been with us since 1975, we would expect him to be more skilled with the weight-lifting equipment.