GRE写作部分将重点考察考生有针对性地对具体考题做出反应的能力，而非要求考生堆砌泛泛的文字。具体说来，这些重点关注的能力包括：1、 清楚有效地阐明复杂观点；2、 用贴切的事理和事例支撑观点；3、考察/验证他人论点及其相关论证；4、支撑一个有针对性的连贯的讨论；5、控制标准书面英语的各个要素。写作部分将联合考察逻辑推理和分析写作两种技能，并且将加大力度引进那些需要考生做出有针对性的回应的考题，降低考生依赖事前准备（如背诵）的材料的可能性。
The planning department for the city of Transopolis recommends, as part of its urban
renewal plan, that the city convert a certain residential area for industrial use and relocate
residents from that area to nearby unoccupied housing. To support this recommendation, the
planners point out that ten years ago the city converted an area of substandard housing on the
other side of town, near a freeway, for industrial use, and that afterwards that area's crime rate
declined while the city's overall property-tax revenue increased. I fred the recommendation
specious on several grounds.
To begin with, the recommendation relies on two poor assumptions about the effects of the
freeway-area conversion. One such assumption is that the freeway-area conversion caused
the decline in that area's crime rate. The mere fact that the conversion occurred before the
decline does not suffice to prove that the conversion caused the decline. Perhaps the true
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cause was some unrelated development--such as a new city-wide "tough-on-crime" policy or
improvements in police training. Another such assumption is that the increase in overall
property-tax revenue indicates an increase in tax revenue from properties in the freeway area.
Perhaps property-tax revenue from the converted properies remained the same, or even
declined, after the conversion, and that the city's overall property-tax revenue increase was
attributable to properties located elsewhere in the city. For that matter, perhaps the city raised
its property-tax rates shortly after the conversion. In short, without ruling out alternative
explanations for the developments that came after the freeway-area conversion, the planners
cannot convince me that the conversion was responsible for those developments.
Even if the evidence turns out to substantiate the two foregoing assumptions, the
recommendation further assumes that the proposed conversion would carry the same results
as the freeway-area conversion. Yet key differences between the two areas might undermine
the analogy. For example, perhaps the properties surrounding the ones converted in the
freeway area were not residential. Common sense informs me that crimes such as burglary
and robbery are less likely in areas where few people reside. Since at least some nearby
housing is available for residents displaced by the proposed conversion, this conversion might
not result in any significant decline in the area's crime rate. At the same time, unless
unoccupied nearby housing can accommodate all displaced residents, the conversion might
create a homelessness problem, thereby undermining the city's objectives.
Finally, the recommendation assumes that all conditions bearing on whether residential
to-industrial conversions would help renew Transopolis have remained unchanged over the
past ten years--and will continue unchanged in the foreseeable future. Yet, perhaps
Transopolis had more and better housing for displaced residents ten years ago than today. Or
perhaps Transopolis would have more trouble finding occupants for additional industrial
buildings today than it did ten years ago. Indeed, a myriad of factors---including the reg4onal
and national economy, demographic shifts, and political influences--might explain why an
urban-renewal program that had a Salutary impact on Transopolis' crime rate and property-tax
revenues in the past might nevertheless not revitalize the city today, or in the future.
In sum, the planners' recommendation is largely unfounded. To bolster it they must provide
clear evidence that the freeway-area conversion contributed to the decline in that area's crime
rate and to the city's overall property-tax revenue increase. To better assess the argument I
would need to know what other changes have occurred in the city that might explain those
developments. Finally, to better assess the proposed plan's chances of success I would need
to compare the circumstances surrounding the decline in the area slated for conversion with
the decline in the freeway area prior to its conversion.
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