Essay Writing and Analytical Reasoning
Essay Writing and Analytical Reasoning rewards structure and argument rather than volume. Two tasks usually appear: a discursive essay on a public-policy or international theme, and reasoning items testing whether you can identify assumptions, strengthen or weaken an argument, and draw only valid conclusions.
Essay craft
- Read the directive: 'discuss' needs both sides; 'critically examine' needs a judgement; 'to what extent' needs a calibrated conclusion.
- State a thesis in the introduction and answer the question in the final paragraph.
- One idea per paragraph, opened by a topic sentence, supported by a specific Sri Lankan or international example, then analysed; description alone earns little.
- Include and rebut the strongest counter-argument.
- Keep the register formal and the sentences controlled; examiners penalise padding.
Reasoning craft
Separate premises from conclusion. An assumption is what the argument needs but does not say. To weaken, show an alternative cause or a flawed sample; to strengthen, close the gap between evidence and claim. Treat correlation as correlation.
Worked example
'Digital filing cut approval times, so the ministry should digitise all branches.' The hidden assumption is that digitisation, and nothing else such as extra staff or a simplified form, caused the fall. To strengthen, produce a comparison group of similar branches that did not digitise. To weaken, point to a simultaneous staffing increase. The conclusion concerns all branches, so even a sound pilot supports only a scaled, monitored rollout.
Traps
Ignoring the directive and writing a general survey; an introduction consuming a third of the answer; statistics with no source; a conclusion that introduces a new argument; confusing 'valid' with 'true'; accepting a sweeping conclusion from a small or self-selected sample.