In a Manhattan GMAT practice test, I was given the following statement for analysis of an issue:

"Individuals living in capitalist economies suffer a higher degree of personal risk than in other types of economies. Creating regulations that protect a society can’t help but interfere with free market forces, a basic tenet of capitalism."

As I started brainstorming for my essay, I started with the thoughts of why capitalism is good and bad even though personal risk is involved. During my brainstorming though, I re-read the statement and realized that the issue is probably more about whether regulations are good for society and so I switched to brainstorming about why regulations are good and bad for society. I'm not even sure I ended up writing my essay on the correct issue and thus the posting. Is there just one issue to analyze in an analysis of an issue essay and if so, how can I quickly come to the correct conclusion as to what the issue is about, or if there is more than one issue in a statement, then what the best issue is to analyze? Thank you.

Luckily, you have a fair amount of leeway to interpret. If you think the prompt gives two different issues, pick whichever one you think is easier, and then actually use this all in your opening paragraph. Say that the prompt raised two issues, X and Y, and that you're going to concentrate on X in this essay. More sentences = good, and you're showing them that you're thinking pretty carefully about what they said. Double bonus. :)

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Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT