essay extended response

GED Essay Writing Guide

What is the ged rla “extended response” question.

The Reasoning Through Language Arts (RLA) section of the GED includes an Extended Response essay question. You will only have 45 minutes to complete this essay, so it is important to familiarize yourself with the nature of the prompt. Read through this guide to become more familiar with the prompt and how to write the best response possible.

If you follow the strategies and the template provided in this guide, you’ll be able to produce a high-scoring essay in the time allotted! 😀

GED Essay Overview

Since the GED Exam is administered on a computer, you will type your essay into a text box. You will first be presented with two Stimulus Passages and then you will be given an essay prompt. The Stimulus Passages will each have 4–5 short paragraphs that introduce an issue and take a stance on that issue, with one passage opposing the other. You will then be given the following prompt:

  ➤ Pro Tip: Remember that the 45 minutes includes the time you take to read the Stimulus Passages. Read the passages thoroughly, but quickly, and make note of any specific points that stand out to you so that you can easily reference them as you formulate your argument.

GED Essay Strategy

In order to maximize your 45 minutes, it’s important to decide ahead of time how much time you will spend on each step. We recommend following the guide below, but you should write some practice responses with a timer nearby to get a good understanding of how our guide can best serve you. Make sure you do not hand-write your practice essays, as it is always best to recreate test conditions as closely as possible when preparing.

Follow this strategy when writing your GED Essay:

Step 1 ► Read and Analyze the Stimulus Passages (5 Minutes).

Start by reading both of the passages. Make sure you understand the issue and the position that each passage is taking. Try to ignore your own personal feelings on the topic as you read. Ultimately, your job is to explain why one of the sides is better supported ; it is fine to completely disagree with the side you defend, so long as you adequately support your stance. You are not writing about who you agree with, you are writing about who supports their argument best .

Step 2 ► Select Your Position and Outline Your Ideas (5 Minutes).

Ask yourself: which side seems like it has more supporting details and/or examples? Your task with this essay is similar to that of a teacher grading an essay. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the position; it matters that the writer supported their position well.

Remember, “better-supported” does not necessarily mean “right.” You are not required to argue in favor of one of the positions; you only need to explain why one position is better-supported than the other position.

Passage 1 : argues that school lunches should be 100% vegetarian in order to improve the health of students and to tackle the obesity epidemic in schools. This passage provides:

• statistics showing that vegetables are good for children.

Passage 2 : argues that animal protein is crucial for superior athletic performance and sustained energy levels in children. This passage provides:

• quotes from a doctor who says that protein from meat keeps children alert in classes after lunchtime.
• scientific research that supports this claim.
• statistics from counties that switched to vegetarian lunches which show that test scores dropped after adopting vegetarian lunches.

Which side is “best supported?” Which side should you choose for your essay? If you said, Passage 2, you are correct. Even if you are a vegetarian, you should be able to see that there is more supporting evidence in the passages for the “pro-meat” side. You will not receive a bad score if you choose to support the side that has less evidence, but it makes your task harder.

You should spend approximately 5 minutes deciding your position and outlining your essay. You can simply type your outline at the top of the text box (and delete it after you finish your essay). We will discuss more specifics about how to outline our essay in the “Template” below!

Step 3 ► Write your Essay (30 Minutes).

At this point, approximately 10 minutes will have gone by. You have read the passages and outlined your position. Now, simply start with paragraph 1, and follow the outline you created. Remember to stop periodically and refer back to your outline at the top. Most GED Extended Response essays are between 4–7 paragraphs and each paragraph is composed of 3–7 sentences. We suggest that you aim for 5 paragraphs; doing so ensures that your argument is complete.

As you will see in the Template below, it’s okay if some paragraphs are shorter than others! Don’t feel like you have to write sentences to fill up space; always write with purpose. Once you’ve made your point in a given paragraph, add a concluding sentence and move on. You should spend approximately 30 minutes on your essay.

Step 4 ► Read Everything Over At Least Once (5 Minutes).

Proofreading can make a good essay great, and a great essay stellar, so don’t forget that you will need at least 5 minutes at the end to thoroughly read through what you have written. Go back to the outline and review your notes. Does the essay you wrote follow the outline? Is it well-organized? If you’re happy that you didn’t stray from your plan, delete your outline notes. This is very important! If you do not delete your notes, scorers will think it is part of your response and take points off.

If you have extra time, look for spelling and grammar errors. Do your verb tenses agree? Did you accidentally leave off the “s” on a plural noun? How are the transitions between paragraphs? Does the essay “flow?” Remember, you can re-type any sentences you dislike, and you can add additional sentences for clarity. This is a timed response, so it does not have to be perfect, but if you have the time to fix mistakes you’ll only be helping your chances.

GED Essay Template

In the four-part strategy above, you read about the importance of planning and making an outline for the position you selected. Your outline should follow this general format:

• Paragraph 1 — Introduction
• Paragraph 2 — Body Paragraph
• Paragraph 3 — Body Paragraph
• Paragraph 4 — Body Paragraph
• Paragraph 5 — Conclusion

★ Paragraph 1 — Introduction

The introduction and conclusion are short paragraphs that “bookend” your essay. Your introduction should:

• introduce the topic from the passage,
• explain both sides of the issue (showing that you understood what you read),
• and make a claim that one side is better-supported and thus, more convincing (this should be the final sentence of the introduction).

Below is a possible template for the introductory paragraph. When you are writing your essay, you can write a very similar introductory paragraph while replacing the underlined portions to fit the prompt that you are answering:

  ★ Paragraphs 2–4 — Body Paragraphs

The real strength of your essay lies in your body paragraphs. Each body paragraph must introduce and describe one reason why the position you chose is better-supported. There will be 3 reasons in total (if you follow the 5-paragraph format). Look for some of these common ready-made arguments when reviewing the passages:

Authority figure — Does the passage quote a reputable figure with specialized knowledge, such as a doctor, scientist, or other expert? Does the reference lend credibility to the overall argument?

History — Does the passage explain a historical event or a precedent to back up its claim?

Statistics — Does the passage provide any numbers or data? Does the data help the author’s position?

Logical reasoning — Is there a strong element of logic or “common-sense” to the argument, and is it presented in a clear, cohesive manner?

Ethics — Is a moral argument made? Does the author insist his or her position is correct because it is the “morally right” thing to do?

Emotion — Does the author appeal to the reader’s feelings? Does the argument evoke an emotional response?

Reasonable Assumptions — Does the author rely on assumptions to draw any conclusions? Are the assumptions reasonable?

Forceful Vocabulary — Does the author’s word choice add weight and importance to the argument?

Not all of these will be present in every passage, but you will only need 3, and it is likely that at least 2–3 of these will be used in each argument. If the passage you choose only has 2 of the above supports, consider writing more than one paragraph about each, using different support. Let’s look at how we can “plug” three of these examples into our thesis from above:

  When you outline your GED Essay, pre-write your thesis and decide on which three forms of support you will discuss to prove that your passage is better-supported. This will help you organize of the rest of your essay. Now that we have chosen our three examples, we can make a more specific outline:

• Paragraph 1 — Introduction (why Position X is better-supported)
• Paragraph 2 — Emotional Appeal
• Paragraph 3 — Authority Figure’s Opinion
• Paragraph 4 — Forceful Vocabulary
• Paragraph 5 — Conclusion (why Position Y is not well supported)

Let’s look at how we can “plug” some of these ready-made arguments into a body paragraph:

  Notice how this body paragraph introduces the example in the first sentence (“logical reasoning”), and then cites 3 specific examples from the passage that employ this logical reasoning. The final sentence reiterates and emphasizes the overall idea of the paragraph. This paragraph is only 5 sentences (if you include a quote), yet it does a great job (1) introducing the superiority of the argued position, (2) giving examples from the passage to support a specific idea, and (3) concluding the paragraph.

In each body paragraph, you must defend your assertion that ONE position is better-supported with at least one specific reference showing this support. If you choose, “authority figures” as an example, but there is only 1 authority figure mentioned in the passage, it’s okay to spend the entire body paragraph discussing that one figure. You do not need to make up anything that is not in the passage—in fact, you shouldn’t!

★ Paragraph 5 — Conclusion

Finally, let’s look at how we can structure the conclusion:

GED Essay Scoring

Three separate scorers will grade your response based on each of the three traits of your essay: (1) Analysis of Arguments and Use of Evidence, (2) Development of Ideas and Structure, and (3) Clarity and Command of Standard English. Notice that if you follow the strategy and template provided above, all of these traits will be accounted for, and you won’t have to worry about them on Test Day! 😀

GED Essay Practice

Now you’re ready to write a practice essay. Try our GED Essay Practice Question .

Best Practices 5 Steps for Great Extended Constructed Responses

Rob Fleisher

In this post, teacher Cara Popecki gives tips to make writing effective, collaborative, and fun.

It’s on every major college readiness and state exam, and it also elicits the most groans from students and teachers alike: the dreaded extended constructed response. Students are generally asked to read and answer questions about two passages that share a common theme, and then they must write an essay that incorporates evidence and analysis from both texts.

On-demand writing, especially writing that requires students to understand multiple texts, can be really stressful and challenging for students. On this high school Smarter Balanced test , students must read two articles about mandatory financial literacy classes before writing an argumentative essay. Building these types of assignments is also challenging for teachers — where do you find all those paired texts?

At CommonLit, we have tried to make this as easy as possible! Use these five steps to create rigorous, high-interest cross-textual assignments that can be implemented all year long.

STEP 1: Pick Two Interesting Texts that Share a Common Theme and Genre

Extended constructed responses offer a great opportunity to expose students to high-interest fiction and informational texts.

We’ve made finding two texts that share a common theme and genre extremely easy. First, go to Commonlit.org and select the library . Use the search filters to narrow the library to the particular grade level that you teach. You can also use the search filters to narrow your search by genre.

Once you’ve found a text that will pique your students’ interest, navigate to the “Paired Texts” tab to find a list of related texts. For example, the informational article “Fear Prompts Teens to Act Impulsively” (1090L) comes with a host of great paired text suggestions.

One example is the informational text “Raising Elephants” (1020L). The text explains the social interactions that teenage male elephants must navigate in order to make the transition to adulthood. Students reading both texts will have fun uncovering the similarities and differences between the behaviors of teenage elephants and teenage humans.

Once you’ve selected your pair of high-interest texts, you’re ready to write the essay prompt.

STEP 2: Write an Aligned, Extended-Response Prompt

To write an aligned, extended-response prompt, start by reading an example extended-response prompt from a released state test. Here is a sample prompt from a 7th grade Smarter Balanced assessment:

Your Assignment: Now that you have completed research on the topic of sleep, the journalism club advisor has asked you to write an explanatory article about sleep and naps for the next issue of the school newspaper. The audience for your article will be other students, teachers, and parents.

Next, read the CommonLit suggested pairing prompt for the two articles you have chosen for inspiration.

Finally, craft a writing prompt that mirrors the style of the state assessment:

Your Assignment: Now that you have completed your research on the topic of social interactions during adolescence, the director of the zoo where you work has asked you to write an explanatory article comparing and contrasting the adolescent phase of humans and elephants for the next issue of the zoo’s newsletter. The audience for your article will be other students and adults who are thinking about visiting the zoo.

STEP 3: Create a Student-Friendly Rubric

Especially if your students are new to extended constructed responses, they will likely get overwhelmed by a traditional teacher-centric rubric. Our recommendation is to introduce students to a student-friendly rubric and focus your lessons on helping students master one rubric row at a time.

CommonLit provides a rubric for short-answer responses that you can edit. You can also create your own student-friendly rubric based on the SAT, ACT, or your state test.

If you are showing students a rubric for the first time, don’t just hand them a complex rubric. Make time to go over each section using an actual essay as a model.

STEP 4: Help Students Internalize What Success Looks Like

If students are going to be successful, they need to develop a vision of mastery that is similar to the teacher’s. Letting students read and score sample student essays (both good and bad) by using the rubric is a wonderful way for students to internalize the goal. For each rubric row, ask students to explain why they gave the score they gave.

You can find sample essays either from your own students’ work (keeping them anonymous), from the college readiness exams (SAT or ACT), or from your state assessments (PARCC, Smarter Balance, FSA, STAAR, etc.).

Do this activity multiple times throughout the year to really drive it home.

STEP 5: Involve Students Through a Peer Revision Process

Especially if you have loads of students, it’s nearly impossible to give students thorough feedback on their drafts before grading their work. One great strategy to address this is through peer revision as a way to help students become more proficient writers.

To kickoff peer revision, first model some essential revision strategies through a think-aloud:

Give specific praise 3–4 times

• I like the way you…
• This [word/sentence] is really…

Write 1–2 specific suggestions for improvement

• I recommend that you…
• Have you tried…

Summarize your feedback

• To sum it all up…

Doing regular peer revision will help students understand that writing is a process, not just a product. Many students struggle with writing because they think they only need to attempt it once without revisiting their own work. It’s tough, but if you build the habit with peer revisions, students will become more self-sufficient over time.

These strategies are not just for test prep. The best way for students to build confidence as writers is not to just practice but to receive clear expectations, feedback, and assignments that compel them to think analytically.

If you are an administrator looking to leverage CommonLit in your school or district, our partnerships team can help. We offer benchmark assessments, professional learning, and more!

Chat with CommonLit

CommonLit’s team will reach out with more information on our school and district partnerships.

How to Pass the GED

Extended Response: Example 1

Basics The second section of Reasoning Through Language Arts evaluates your ability to integrate reading and writing by way of a 45-minute Extended Response. GED guidelines specify that you will be asked to write an essay about the best-supported position—the most persuasive side of an argument—presented in two passages with opposing points of view.  Accordingly, you will need to produce evidence supporting the most convincing position from either Passage I or Passage II.  Attention to specific details within the passages will help you find the necessary pieces of evidence.

GED.com has excellent resources to help prepare for the Extended Response as follows: • poster • videos • guidelines – english • guidelines – spanish • quick tips – english • quick tips – spanish • practice passages – english • practice passages – spanish

Here, at HowtoPasstheGED.com, a five-paragraph essay will be used as a framework for writing an Extended Response.

Five-Paragraph Essay – Outline Paragraph 1:  Introduction of your position with three supporting points. Paragraph 2:  Discussion of first point. Paragraph 3:  Discussion of second point. Paragraph 4:  Discussion of third point. Paragraph 5:  Summary and Conclusion of your position and its three supporting points.

Five-Paragraph Essay – Choose (Before You Write) • Read Passage I and Passage II. • Choose the best-supported position. • Select three points supporting this position.

Five-Paragraph Essay – Beginner Level (You’re Up and Running!) • Write the first sentence of each of the five paragraphs. • In paragraph 1, introduce your position and its three supporting points. • In paragraph 2, put down the first point. • In paragraph 3, put down the second point. • In paragraph 4, put down the third point. • In paragraph 5, restate your position and its three supporting points.

Five-Paragraph Essay – Intermediate Level (You’re Adding On!) • In paragraph 1, introduce your position and its three supporting points. • In paragraph 2, write at least three sentences about the first point, including mentioning something from the other side. • In paragraph 3, write at least three sentences about the second point, including mentioning something from the other side. • In paragraph 4, write at least three sentences about the third point, including mentioning something from the other side. • In paragraph 5, restate your position and its three supporting points, including coming to a conclusion about them.

Five-Paragraph Essay – Advanced Level (Polish Your Essay If You Have Time) • In paragraph 1, introduce your position and its three supporting points. • In paragraph 2, write at least three sentences about the first point, including mentioning something from the other side. • In paragraph 3, write at least three sentences about the second point, including mentioning something from the other side. • In paragraph 4, write at least three sentences about the third point, including mentioning something from the other side. • In paragraph 5, restate your position and its three supporting points, including coming to a conclusion about them.

The example below goes over the process of writing a five-paragraph essay as an Extended Response to Passage I versus Passage II.

Passage I Working from Home is Beneficial

Some experts say there’s no going back now that both employers and workers have learned that telework can be effective.

“The pandemic has radically changed how we view telework or remote work,” said Timothy Golden, a professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Many individuals and companies have realized that we can work remotely effectively. And so, I think remote work is here to stay.”

“We are going to err on the side of letting more people work remotely for longer periods of time,” said Ravi Gajendran, chair of the Department of Global Leadership and Management in the College of Business at Florida International University.

“When that’s not working as well,” added Gajendran, “the pendulum will sort of swing slightly back towards the office. It’s not going to come back to what it was previously, but what we’re going to find is, as new employees join, as new teams form, and as people who have not worked together before are now working remotely, things are not going to be as smooth.”

But, said Golden, “We know that many employees have been highly productive during the pandemic and have been able to carry on their work in a fashion that was consistent with their productivity before the pandemic.”

According to Cathleen Swody, an organizational psychologist at Thrive Leadership, remote work has led to more authentic moments between co-workers who’ve ended up meeting a colleague’s pets or families online, as the pandemic provided a virtual window, and therefore greater insight, into a co-worker’s personal side than working at the office ever did.

“You’ve seen many large companies, and in different industries, make announcements about the future of their workforce in how it is likely to be hybrid. And some workers will be working remotely on a permanent basis, and others will be in a hybrid form,” pointed out Golden. “Companies that do this right and do this in the right way, will have a competitive advantage over those who do not.”

Increased telework could free employees from having to live close to where they work. That could also benefit employers who won’t have to be limited to the local talent pool. More jobs could go to places with lower costs of living and ultimately, overseas.

“It could go to Asia or Africa or South America,” said Gajendran.

With more employees working remotely from home, employers could reduce their costs further by cutting back on office space. – adapted from VOA (04/09/2021, 04/12/2021, 04/29/21)

Passage II Working from Home is Harmful

The benefits of working from home—including skipping a long commute and having a better work-life balance—have been well documented, but employees are literally paying for the privilege, according to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“People need to dedicate space to work from home,” said Christopher Stanton, an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School who co-authored the study. “For many folks who lived in small apartments or houses before the pandemic, working from home wasn’t a a realistic long-term solution unless they could upgrade to larger apartments or houses.”

The researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau to reach their conclusions. They found that between 2013 and 2017, households with at least one teleworker spent on average more of their income on rent or a mortgage to pay for the extra room needed to work from home.

“A household that was spending about $1,000 a month on rent would be spending around $1,070 on rent. So, it’s about a 7% increase, on average, across the income distribution,” Stanton said.

The researchers estimate that about 10% of people who worked in an office before the pandemic could permanently transition to working from home full time. A recent Upwork survey suggests that 36 million Americans will be working remotely by 2025—an 87% increase over pre-pandemic levels, and these workers could potentially take on the additional costs.

The added expense is easier for high-income households to bear but puts an increased burden on workers who earn less money.

“You might have gotten an increase of 20-ish percent in housing expenses for lower-income households with remote workers compared to lower-income households without remote workers,” Stanton said. “That’s a pretty big chunk of expenditure for those households in the bottom half of the income distribution.”

Kristen Carpenter, chief psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ohio State University, added that at-home, remote work causes more work to be performed outside normal business hours, so it’s hard “to draw a boundary that prevents work from being ever-present,” including nights and weekends.

Cathleen Swody, an organizational psychologist at Thrive Leadership, also pointed out that when people work from home, “they kind of get stuck in this little place,” whereas going back to the office leads to more interpersonal interaction and innovation. – adapted from VOA (04/09/2021, 04/12/2021, 04/29/21)

Prompt Passage I finds working from home to be beneficial; Passage II finds working from home to be harmful. In your response, analyze the positions presented in Passage I and Passage II to determine which passage is best supported. Use relevant and specific evidence to back your choice. You have 45 minutes to plan, type, and edit your response.

Five-Paragraph Essay – Choose (Before You Write) • Read Passage I and Passage II. • Choose the best-supported position. In this example, Passage I is chosen as the best-supported position. • Select three points supporting this position. (1) Working from home is productive. (2) Working from home improves employee interaction. (3) Working from home saves money.

Passage I is the best-supported position because working from home is productive, improves employee interaction, and saves money.

Working from home is productive.

Working from home improves employee interaction.

Working from home saves money.

In summary, Passage I is the best-supported position because working from home is productive, improves employee interaction, and saves money.

Working from home is productive.  Passage I uses the pandemic to make the relevant observation that individuals and companies realized they could work remotely effectively.  Many employees have been highly productive this way and can stay this way.  Passage II admits in its very first sentence that the benefits of working from home have been well documented. 

Working from home improves employee interaction.  Passage I is persuasive when it notes that remote work has led to “more authentic moments” between co-workers.  However, workers still have the option of working at the office, as well as at home, in a hybrid form.  Thus, Passage II is incorrect when it claims remote workers get stuck in one place.

Working from home saves money.  Passage I makes a convincing argument for freedom.  It asserts that remote work frees employees from having to live close to office buildings.  It also frees employers from having to pay for as much office space.  Passage II says employees need to spend some money to outfit a home office, but this is less costly than commuting.

In summary, Passage I is the best-supported position because working from home is productive, improves employee interaction, and saves money.  In conclusion, there is no place like home.

Working from home is productive.  Passage I uses an authority—Timothy Golden, a professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—to make the following relevant observation: “The pandemic has radically changed how we view telework or remote work.  Many individuals and companies have realized that we can work remotely effectively.  We know that many employees have been highly productive during the pandemic and have been able to carry on their work in a fashion that was consistent with their productivity before the pandemic.  And so, I think remote work is here to stay.”  Passage II admits that at least some of what Golden said is true by stating in its very first sentence “the benefits of working from home—including skipping a long commute and having a better work-life balance—have been well documented.” 

Working from home improves employee interaction.  Passage I effectively uses another expert—Cathleen Swody, an organizational psychologist at Thrive Leadership—to state that remote work has led to “more authentic moments between co-workers who’ve ended up meeting a colleague’s pets or families online, as the pandemic provided a virtual window, and therefore greater insight, into a co-worker’s personal side than working at the office ever did.”  Although Passage II says people who work from home “kind of get stuck in this little place,” Golden affirms that workers aren’t really stuck, because some will be working in a hybrid form, meaning partly at home and partly in an office.

Working from home saves money.  Passage I makes a convincing argument for freedom.  Remote work saves money by freeing employees from having to live close to office buildings and freeing employers from having to pay for as much office space.  According to Christopher Stanton (Associate Professor at Harvard Business School) in Passage II, employees need to spend some money to outfit their apartments or houses with a home office, but this is a small price to pay compared to avoiding a costly daily commute.

In summary, Passage I is the best-supported position because working from home is productive, improves employee interaction, and saves money.  In particular, Passage I leads to the conclusion that working from home is beneficial in that it leaves nobody out: Both employers and employees stand to gain.

Remember, the RLA Extended Response is based on what YOU determine to be the best-supported position presented in either Passage I or Passage II. In order to demonstrate that YOU have room to maneuver, the example below goes over the process of writing a five-paragraph essay as an Extended Response to Passage I versus Passage II with a different choice.

Prior to the pandemic, about 5 million Americans worked remotely. But COVID-19 forced U.S. employers to allow telework on a massive scale, resulting in an estimated 75 million people working from home over the past year.

Five-Paragraph Essay – Choose (Before You Write) • Read Passage I and Passage II. • Choose the best-supported position. In this example, Passage II is chosen as the best-supported position. • Select three points supporting this position. (1) Working from home is unproductive. (2) Working from home hampers employee interaction. (3) Working from home costs money.

Passage II is the best-supported position because working from home is unproductive, hampers employee interaction, and costs money.

Working from home is unproductive.

Working from home hampers employee interaction.

Working from home costs money.

In summary, Passage II is the best-supported position because working from home is unproductive, hampers employee interaction, and costs money.

Working from home is unproductive.  Backed by facts, Passage II is able to make a strong statement when it says working in small setups at home ultimately ends up in fatigue and less productive employees.  In fact, fifty-four percent of home workers feel overworked and 39% are exhausted.  Passage I has no numbers to back up its claim that people can work remotely effectively.

Working from home hampers employee interaction.  Passage II cleverly notes that when people work from home, they get stuck.  Going back to the office leads to more interpersonal interaction and innovation.  Passage I even admits that working from home doesn’t always work well, meaning that people end up back in the office.

Working from home costs money.  Passage II convincingly has money in mind when it states that households with at least one teleworker have to spend some of their income to pay for the extra room needed to work from home.  Lower-income households need to spend even more of their income to set things up at home.  Passage I offers no solutions for employees paying out of pocket to work from home.

In summary, Passage II is the best-supported position because working from home is unproductive, hampers employee interaction, and costs money.  In conclusion, there are places other than home.

Working from home is unproductive.  Passage II comes out swinging with Christopher Stanton, an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, who asserts having nonergonomic setups in small places [at home] ultimately ends up “leading to fatigue and wear and tear and less productive employees in the long run.”  In fact, “fifty-four percent of people who’ve worked from home this past year feel overworked, and 39% say they’re downright exhausted.”  Although Timothy Golden (professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) claims in Passage I that “many individuals and companies have realized that we can work remotely effectively,” he has no real numbers to back him up.

Working from home hampers employee interaction.  Passage II cites another authority—Cathleen Swody, an organizational psychologist at Thrive Leadership—to point out that people who work from home “kind of get stuck in this little place.”  She goes on to convincingly argue that “going back to the office leads to more interpersonal interaction and innovation.”  In Passage I, Ravi Gajendran, chair of the Department of Global Leadership and Management in the College of Business at Florida International University, even admits that working from home doesn’t always work well, such that “the pendulum will sort of swing” back towards the office.

Working from home costs money.  Passage II hits home with data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which found that “between 2013 and 2017, households with at least one teleworker spent on average more of their income on rent or a mortgage to pay for the extra room needed to work from home.”  Stanton adds that “you might have gotten an increase of 20-ish percent in housing expenses for lower-income households with remote workers compared to lower-income households without remote workers, a pretty big chunk of expenditure for those households in the bottom half of the income distribution.”  Passage I offers no solutions for employees “literally paying for the privilege” of working from home.

In summary, Passage II is the best-supported position because working from home is unproductive, hampers employee interaction, and costs money.  In particular, Passage II leads to the conclusion that working from home can be so harmful that it never stops, becoming an “ever-present” task performed outside normal business hours without a boundary.

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• How to Write an Extended Response in High School

It’s your first day in high school and your teacher has given you an extended response to write. But what is an extended response anyway?

We’re here for you! In this article, we will help you understand what an extended response is and how to write an amazing one to ace your assessments!

Plus, we’ve added in a downloadable   scaffold sheet for you!

So, let’s dive right in!

What is an Extended Response in High School?  Types of Extended Responses for High School How Long is a High School Extended Response? How to Start Your Extended Response How to Structure an Extended Response in High School Extended Responses VS Essay: What’s the Difference?

What is an Extended Response in High School? 

In short, an extended response is any piece of writing that is longer than one paragraph . 

Research , analysis and planning are important when writing an extended response. However, answering the question is key to excelling your extended response. 

To answer the question, avoid jotting down everything you know about the topic.  Instead, focus on the ‘key words’ in the questions.

Tip : A good way to remember your ‘keywords’ is to circle or highlight them before you start planning your extended response . 

An example of a key word would be an ‘action word’ , such as ‘describe, ‘explain’ and ‘evaluate’. This will give you an idea of how you should be answering the question. 

If the words ‘extended response’ sound scary, don’t worry ! In Year 5 or 6, you’ve already started to write longer answers to challenging questions.

In high school, you’ll work further on these same skills , so you’ll step up to the next level!

Also writing a feature article for high school English? Check out our ultimate guide and structure to writing a feature article here !

Types of Extended Responses for High School

In most subjects, your high school teacher can ask you to write an extended response. This means that the type and structure of extended response can be different depending on the subject !

The good news is, your teacher can help you plan your subject-specific extended responses by providing detailed, up-to-date instructions .

T his way, you understand exactly what you need to do! To give you an idea of what types of extended responses that you may be asked to write, here is a list : 

For discussions, you will explore two sides of the argument, otherwise known as “for” and “against” .

To contrast these arguments, you will learn how to use words such as “ however ”, “ nonetheless ” and “ in contrast ”.   

Critical Analysis 

For a critical analysis, you will need to show that you understand the text inside and out .

Oftentimes, this type of extended response is longer than the others . This is because you will need to write more than one paragraph per point .

Add some variety and spice to your critical analysis extended response and use our essential list of language features here ! 

Exposition or Persuasive 

For expositions and/or persuasive pieces, you will need to make a strong argument to persuade your reader to side with you. 

Looking for strong and convincing words in your exposition and persuasive writing? Read our extensive list of high modality words here !

Compare and Contrast

For this type of extended response, you will need to write about the similarities and differences between two texts .

It is important that you show how the two text are similar and different, rather than story-telling the text. 

Check out our breakdown and guide to using persuasive techniques here !

How Long is a High School Extended Response?

So, how long should an extended response be? 100, 200 or 500 words?

According to NESA , an extended response for high school should have an intro , at least 3 body paragraphs and a conclusion .

This means that your extended response will have at least 5 paragraphs in total with 3 to 7 sentences per paragraph , adding up to 300 to 500 words!

However, you can choose to write an additional body paragraph or two if you have more points to make to answer your question more effectively! 

How to Start Your Extended Response

Most students make the mistake of jumping right into writing without thinking about what they want to write. 

Instead, it is important to start an extended response by planning it out first ! 

You can start by asking yourself, “ What is the question asking me to do? ”.

A great tip is to circle or highlight the keywords in the question and define them . This helps to make sure you understand the question and in doing so, you’re able to decide on a key idea to answer the question directly. 

Next, you would want to create a list of ideas or facts that address the question . A mind map i s a great way to put your ideas on paper and make sense of it!

After this, you should find examples from your text that answer the question. These examples can be events, facts or quotes from your text which you may use to support your points.

Tip : A good trick is to try writing these notes down in your own words, to avoid copying other people’s work. 

Finally, plan the structure of your extended response! You can do this by arranging your points in a logical order so the ideas link well together. 

How to Structure an Extended Response in High School

Not sure how to structure your extended response in high school? 

It’s as simple as ABC! An extended response has the same basic structure as an essay — with an introduction , a body and a conclusion .

Here’s a breakdown on how an extended response should be structured: 

Access our comprehensive guide to our High School Extended Responses structure and template here!

Introduction

In the introduction, you will need to answer the question directly and introduce the points that you will make in your body paragraphs. 

Body Paragraph  

NESA recommends that you have at least 3 body paragraphs in your extended response.

At times, more complex ideas will need more than one paragraph and that is totally ok! 

However, try to separate your points into their own paragraphs , rather than mixing them all up in one paragraph. This is to make sure that your points are loud and clear for your teacher to understand!

Remember to back up your point in each paragraph with enough evidence — c heck out how to find and use quotes here !

Conclusion  

At the end of your high-school extended response, you will write a conclusion which summarises the main points you have talked about in your extended response.

It is important to not mention new points here!

And don’t forget to reference your resources at the end of each assignment!

Extended responses VS Essay: What’s the Difference?

Wait, isn’t an extended response and an essay the same thing?

Well, not really. An extended response and an essay share the same structure — with its introduction, body paragraphs and conclusions.

The process of writing an extended response is also similar to writing an essay , with its research, analysis and planning. 

So, what makes them different?

Think of extended response as a category , and this category is separated into its 4 types (ie. discussion, critical analysis, exposition/persuasive and compare and contrast). 

Also writing an essay for high school English? Check out our tips to writing a STEEL paragraph and acing your essay writing here !

Meanwhile, essays are a type of extended response that encompasses critical analysis, persuasive writing and at times, compare and contrast. 

Additionally, extended responses are also more flexible in terms of its length , as it may vary from 300 to 1000 words, depending on how many points and paragraphs you have to make.

On the other hand, essays tend to be 1000 words long . 

And, That’s It!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter so you can receive free scaffolds for all 4 types of extended responses: discussion, critical analysis, exposition/persuasive and compare and contrast!

Want to improve your analytical skills for English? Check out why you should keep a reading journal for English here !

On the hunt for other useful resources?

Have another writing assignment? Here are our other writing guides:

• The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Feature Article
• The Ultimate Guide to Using Persuasive Techniques for English
• The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Recount in Primary School
• The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Persuasive Text

The Essential List of High Modality Words for Persuasive Writing

Are you looking for some extra help with writing your extended responses for high school.

We have an incredible team of tutors and mentors!

We can help you master your extended response writing and ace your upcoming assessments with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or online! We also have knowledgeable tutors in Western Sydney who can support you.

We’ve supported over  8,000 students over the last 11 years , and on average our students score mark improvements of over 20%!

To find out more and get started with an inspirational tutor and mentor,   get in touch today  or give us a ring on  1300 267 888!

Kate Lynn Law graduated in 2017 with an all rounders HSC award and an ATAR of 97.65. Passionate about mentoring, she enjoys working with high school students to improve their academic, work and life skills in preparation for the HSC and what comes next. An avid blogger, Kate had administered a creative writing page for over 2000 people since 2013, writing to an international audience since her early teenage years.

• Topics: ✏️ English , ✍️ Learn

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GED Essay-Topics, Samples, And Tips

Last Updated on July 31, 2024.

This language Arts lesson is part of this website’s free online GED classes a nd practice tests, generously provided by the accredited comprehensive GED prep course created by Onsego.

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One part of the GED Reasoning through Language Arts (RLA) test is writing a GED Essay, also known as the Extended Response. You have 45 minutes to create your essay. The GED essay is an argumentative essay.

A common method for writing this type of essay is the five-paragraph approach.

Writing your GED Essay is not about writing an opinion on the topic at hand. Your opinion is irrelevant. You are asked to determine and explain which of the arguments is better.

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Table of Contents

• 0.1 Video Transcription
• 1 GED Essay Structure
• 2 GED Essay Topics
• 3 GED Essay Samples
• 4 Tips for Writing your GED Essay
• 5 How your GED Essay is Scored

Video Transcription

After reading the stimulus with two different arguments about a subject, your task is to explain why one of these arguments is better.

Remember, when writing your GED Essay, you are NOT writing your opinion on the topic. That’s irrelevant. You must write about why one argument is better than the other.

You are writing an analysis of the author’s two positions and explaining which argument is stronger. These two arguments are presented in the stimulus, so you don’t need to create any own examples.

So again, you only need to decide what argument is stronger and claim it and prove it. It is NOT about your opinion.

Since in your essay, you need to determine which argument is best supported, your claim should clearly state which of the two positions is stronger.

You will be provided with the stimulus material and a prompt.

The stimulus is a text that provides 2 opposing opinions about a certain subject. The prompt provides instructions and tells you what you need to do.

I’ll say it again because so many students make mistakes here, it’s NOT about your opinion on the topic but the subject that matters!

You need to analyze the arguments and determine which opinion is best supported throughout the text.

You are NOT asked which argument you agree with more, and you should NEVER respond with a personal opinion.

So, don’t use the word “I” such as “I think that…” “I agree because…” “In my opinion…”.

The GED essay is graded on a machine that uses algorithms to figure out your score.

So, no teacher will decide about the score in any way.

It’s very important that you remember this!

Let’s take a look at the structure, topics, and format of the GED Essay.

GED Essay Structure

Ged essay topics.

• GED Essay Sample
• GED Essay Scoring
• GED Essay Writing Tips

Remember: you need to analyze which of the presented arguments is better and explain why it’s better.

Likewise, make sure your reasons come from the text – you aren’t making up your examples; you’re talking about the ones in the passages.

How should you prove that one argument is stronger? – Look at the evidence in the text.

Did the author use a relevant statistic from a reliable source, or did he/she assume something with a hypothetical anecdote?

Once you know which is better supported, you’re on your way.

Keep in mind: Don’t Summarize!

It’s easy to substitute a simpler task (summarize each side) for the more complex task of evaluating arguments. But if all you do is summarize, your response will be considered off-topic and likely will not receive any points.

The GED Essay should contain:

• 4-7 paragraphs of 3 to 7 sentences each and 300-500 words in total.
• An essay (or response) that is significantly shorter could put you in danger of scoring a 0 just for not showing enough of your writing skills.
• As you read the stimulus material (text), think carefully about the argumentation presented in the passage(s). “Argumentation” refers to the assumptions, claims, support, reasoning, and credibility on which a position is based.
• Pay close attention to how the author(s) use these strategies to convey his or her position.

Every well-written GED essay has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

Your response will be an argument or an argumentative essay. Remember that you are NOT writing your opinion on the topic.

You are writing an analysis of two of the author’s positions and explaining which argument is stronger.

Things to keep in mind: the Extended Response (GED Essay) is scored by smart machines that are programmed to recognize correct answers. So, don’t try to be creative; just be correct. Also:

• Use proper grammar and sentence structure.
• Practice writing a 300 to 500-word essay.

Let’s look at the GED Essay structure: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

• The Introduction introduces the topic you are writing about and states your claim or thesis statement. Stand your position.
• The Body of the essay presents reasoning and evidence to support your claim. This is the longest part of the response and should be at least two paragraphs.
• The concluding paragraph sums up your main points and restates your claim.

Here are a few examples of GED Essay Topics. Click on the title to read a full stimulus and a prompt.

An Analysis of Daylight-Saving Time

The article presents arguments from both supporters and critics of Daylight-Saving Time who disagree about the practice’s impact on energy consumption and safety. Check here to read the full article.

Should the Penny Stay in Circulation?

Analyze the presented arguments and decide which one is better supported. Check here to read the full article.

Is Golf a Sport?

Proponents say that golf meets the definition of “sport.” Opponents say that golf better meets the definition of “game” than “sport. Analyze both opinions and determine which one is better supported. Check here to read the full article.

GED Essay Samples

Click here to access a sample of a GED essay with an explanation of the structure. Getting familiar with GED essay samples will help you plan your essay and understand what elements are important.

When reading the essay subject, you really should take the time to pull together your thoughts. By arranging your ideas rationally, you will be able to express your thoughts far better on paper. When you start writing, concentrate on the guidelines that you came to understand in English class.

Pay attention to English language usage (grammar); you must use the right punctuation and capitalization and decide on suitable word solutions.

Check here to read a GED Essay Sample with our comments.

Tips for Writing your GED Essay

1. Make sure you read the stimulus and prompt cautiously

It’s good to practice this carefully. Check out each question carefully and take a little time to figure out the topic and what kind of answer will be expected.

It is important to read the questions meticulously.

Usually, students simply run over stimulus and prompt and begin to write immediately, believing that they will save time this way.

Well, this actually the most undesirable thing to do. Take a short while and try to understand the questions completely in order to respond to them appropriately. If you wish, highlight the essential words and phrases in the stimulus to be able to look at it from time to time to be certain you stick to the topic.

2. Sketch an outline for the essay

In general, you will only need a few minutes to plan your essay, and it is imperative to take that time. As soon as you grasp the questions entirely, and once you have scribbled down some initial ideas, make an outline of the essay and follow that.

Plan an introduction, body, and conclusion. Following this process is going to save you a lot of time and it helps establish a rational development of thoughts.

3. Stick to the subject

Each paragraph in the body of your response should explain why a piece of evidence supports your claim or disputes the opposing claim to explain your evidence.

You can describe or restate it. This shows that you understand precisely what it means and how it relates to your claim.

Cite the mentioned details or facts of a specific point and relate them to your claim.

Your response should include evidence from both passages and explain what strong evidence supports one argument and why faulty evidence weakens the other argument.

4. Proofreading and Revision

By the time you completed writing your essay, you should go back to the beginning and read your essay carefully again, as you quite easily could have forgotten a comma or have misspelled a word while writing your essay. See also this post ->  Is the GED Language Arts Test Hard?

While rereading your essay, pay close attention to whether your essay provides well-targeted points, is organized clearly, presents specific information and facts, comes with proper sentence construction, and has no grammar or spelling mistakes.

How your GED Essay is Scored

Your GED essay is scored by smart machines that are programmed to recognize correct answers. So don’t try to be creative; just be correct.

They will be using five criteria to assess your essay.

• Organization: were you clear about the essential idea, and did you present a well-thought strategy for composing your essay?
• Clear and swift response: did you deal with the subject adequately, without shifting from one focal point to another?
• Progress and details: did you apply relevant examples and specific details to elaborate on your original concepts or arguments, as opposed to using lists or repeating identical information?
• Grammar Rules of English: did you use decent writing techniques like sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, syntax, and grammar, and did you shape and edit your essay after you penned the first draft?
• Word choice: how far did you choose and employ suitable words to indicate your points of view?

Your 45 minutes will go quickly, so focus on these important points to get the best score.

What’s important is to make a clear statement about which position is better supported. Write clear sentences and arrange paragraphs in a logical order.

GED testing includes four modules (independent subtests) in Mathematical Reasoning (Math), Reasoning through Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies that can be taken separately. You should study very well, be effective on test day, and pass the subtest(s) you registered for.

GED writing for essays may be a bit tricky, but you can store all this information for proper learning on a list and change to proper write essay techniques before test day has arrived. Just practice a lot, and you’ll see that it’ll be getting better and better. So now you know all about writing the GED Essay.

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How To Write The GED Essay 2024 (Extended Response)

Santiago mallea.

• Career Planning , Non-Traditional Students , Writing Tips

Chief of Content At Gradehacker

• Updated on May, 2024

How to Write The GED Essay

The best strategy for writing the GED essay is:

• Read the passages (5 minutes)
• Analyze the data and create an outline (5 minutes)
• Write your extended response (30 minutes)
• Reread and edit your writing (5 minutes)

If you want a clear example of what your GED essay should like like, later in this blog you’ll find a sample.

Struggling with GED prep? We’re here!

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If you are planning on taking the GED test , you’ll eventually have to pass the GED essay .

Also known as the extended response, this assignment tests your evidence-based writing skills, and it’s where many students get stuck. However, writing the GED essay is easier than most people make it out to be .

It just takes practice and patience . And with these tips, you’ll be able to ace the test in no time!

Here at Gradehacker, we are the non-traditional adult student’s most trusted resource. Earning a GED diploma is necessary to enroll in college or access better job opportunities. We want you to be capable of writing an entire essay that will clearly show that you are up to the task .

This guide will teach you how to write a GED essay and share the best tips to make your text stand out and meet the passing score.

What Is The GED Essay?

The GED test consists of four sections:

• Mathematics
• Social Studies
• English Language Arts

The Reasoning Through Language Arts exam mainly consists of multiple-choice questions but also includes the Extended Response assignment, where you have to write an essay from scratch from two passages they give you.

You’ll have 45 minutes to analyze these two texts, choose which argument presents strong evidence, and explain why each piece of evidence supports your point.

While this part only represents 20% of your Reasoning Through Language Arts exam score (meaning that you can pass the Language Arts writing test even if you perform poorly in this section), it’s key that you know how to create a well-written GED essay.

Since they are testing your analysis of arguments and writing skills, it’s your opportunity to prove that you have mastered the core elements of the entire Language Arts section.

Plus, if you are planning on pursuing a college degree, where knowing how to analyze texts and write an essay response is important, passing the GED extended response is key.

GED Essay Prompt

To pass the essay portion, you’ll have to read two different passages that talk about the same issue but take an opposite stance about it. Your task is to determine which position presented is better supported.

It doesn’t matter if you disagree with that position; you must defend and explain your decision using multiple pieces of evidence from the texts.

Regarding length, the essay prompt suggests that your response should be approximately four to seven paragraphs of three to seven sentences each , which should be a 300-500 word essay.

While there is no essay length requirement regarding the number of words, we recommend writing between 400 and 500 .

GED Essay Sentence Structure

So, how do you write a GED extended response? Well, It has a structure similar to an argumentative essay.

• Introductory paragraph:

This should be a primary and short thesis statement where you clearly address which of the two passages is better supported.

• Body paragraphs: 

Consist of three or four body paragraphs where you formulate your thesis using the text’s information as your source.

• Conclusion paragraph:

As a final step, briefly summarize your argument and reiterate its importance. If this is not your forte, there are many conclusion tips that can help you!

How to Pass The GED Essay

Now that you understand the GED Extended Response and what you need to do, here is our essay writing guide.

You’ll find multiple tips throughout it, but essentially, to write a cohesive, well-constructed essay, you’ll have to follow this four-part strategy:

• Read the passages
• Analyze the data and create an outline
• Write your extended response essay
• Reread and edit your writing

Write a Winning GED Essay

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Read the two passages (5 min)

The first step is to read both body passages thoroughly but quickly.

You need to understand what the topic is about, and while you read the text, highlight the statistics and factual data each author uses as support.

Remember that you can have differing views on your chosen side. Recognize which stance has better sources to defend your point, and explain why in your essay.

Analyze the data and create an outline (5 min)

Once you are done reading both texts and already highlighted all the essential information the authors use, you’ll need to analyze the evidence!

While ideally, you should recognize who supports their point better in the previous step , doing it in this part will be easier as you have all the factual data on sig ht.

Usually, the text with more information highlighted will be the one that defends its stance the best . 

So, the next thing you need to do is make an outline and write down your ideas. This way, you’ll have all the information organized to begin the most crucial part of the writing process.

Write your extended response essay (30 min)

And now, with evidence highlighted and an outline created, you are ready to start writing!

If you are going for the minimum and writing a 5-paragraph essay, you’ll need at least three major ideas to develop individually in separate paragraphs.

Stick to one idea per paragraph , and include one or two of your selected pieces of evidence from the texts to organize the information better and keep a good flow.

Remember to use connectors! However, nevertheless, furthermore, additionally, and more! These vital elements will help you introduce the reason for your argument at the beginning of each paragraph.

And just like with any essay, you must use formal and academic language , but remember to be concise and straightforward. It’s the content of what you write that’s important here, so choose your words wisely to show your English language knowledge.

Plus, remember that there’s no specific word count you need to meet.

Our own pro-tip here is to write the introductory paragraph last.

Because many students struggle and waste valuable minutes when trying to begin with the introduction, you can save extra time by explaining and defending your arguments first and writing the intro once you are done.

You’ll see how easy it will be to summarize the main issue and thesis statement once you’ve already developed your points.

Since the GED essay works very similarly to an argumentative paper, there are many more pro-tips you can learn in our guide on how to write an argumentative essay . So be sure to check it out!

Reread and edit your writing (5 min)

Before submitting your essay, you must read what you wrote, check for spelling errors, and ensure that your ideas are clearly understood .

Not editing your essay can be one of your most critical mistakes!

Remember they are testing your understanding of the English language and writing skills; handing in an essay with spelling mistakes, flawed evidence, or poorly structured text can make you lose valuable points.

For this part, it’s crucial you know the most common essay mistakes so you can avoid them!

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GED Essay Sample

Follow all of these tips, and you are guaranteed to pass the GED essay!

However, here you have a   GED Testing Service’s essay example that perfectly explains how this assignment should be completed:

Mastering the GED Essay

Now you know how to write the GED essay!

Remember to follow our essay-writing strategy to pass the Language Arts section by demonstrating mastery of your writing skills.

You are more than capable of completing the GED test with the highest score and then applying to the best colleges to continue your educational journey .

Once you make it happen, don’t forget that if you ever need assistance with your essays or classes , Gradehacker is always here to help!

And if you need more tips on how to improve your writing skills , check out these related blog posts:

EssayPro Honest Review | How Their Editing Service Work

Best AI to Write Essays

How Much Does It Cost for Help with My Entire Class?

Best Apps For Writing 2024 | Boost Your Writing Skills

How to Write a Research Paper | The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

How Much Does it Cost to Write My Essay?

Write an Essay From Scratch With Chat GPT: Step-by-Step Tutorial

Santiago Mallea is a curious and creative journalist who first helped many college students as a Gradehacker consultant in subjects like literature, communications, ethics, and business. Now, as a Content Creator in our blog, YouTube channel, and TikTok, he assists non-traditional students improve their college experience by sharing the best tips. You can find him on LinkedIn .

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GED Essay: Everything You Need To Know In 2024

Learn all you need to know about the GED essay, its structure sample, topics, tips, and how it is scored in this post.

January 1, 2022

The GED essay is intimidating to many people. Writing an entire essay from scratch in 45 minutes or less may seem difficult, but it does not have to be. This GED essay writing overview will help you prepare for and learn about the written section of the exam . In this post, Get-TestPrep will show everything you need to know about GED essays , including their structure, sample topics, tips, and how they are stored .

What Is The GED Essay?

The GED exam consists of four subjects : Mathematical Reasoning, Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts Reasoning (RLA ). The GED extended response , sometimes known as the GED essay, is one of the two portions of the RLA subject test. You’ll have 45 minutes to finish the essay to your best capacity. Don’t worry if you don’t finish on time! Because the essay accounts for just 20% of your ultimate RLA score, you can still pass the test even if you don’t receive a high essay score.

The GED extended response can cover a wide range of topics, but it will always be formatted in the same way. You will be assigned two articles on the same topic, which will typically be argumentative essays with a firm position. You’ll be asked to assess the two arguments and create your own argumentative essay based on which article delivered the more compelling argument. The essay should be three to five paragraphs long, with each paragraph including three to seven sentences.

GED Essay Structure

An introduction, a body, and a conclusion are included in every well-written GED essay. You have to write an argument or an argumentative essay. Keep in mind that you are not expressing your own view on the subject. You’re analyzing two of the author’s points of view and determining which one is more compelling. Keep in mind that the Extended Response (GED Essay) is graded by machine intelligence that has been designed to detect the right responses. So, instead of trying to be creative, simply be accurate. Also:

• Make sure you’re using proper grammar and sentence structure.
• Practice writing a 300-500 word essay.

Let’s take a look at the format of a GED Essay : an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

• The introduction outlines your claim or thesis statement and explains the topic you’re writing about. Maintain your position.
• The body of the essay includes facts and arguments to back up your claim. This section of the response should be at least two paragraphs long.
• The concluding paragraph restates your claim and summarises your important points.

GED Essay Topic Examples

Here are a few GED Essay Topics to get you started:

Topic 1: An Analysis of Daylight-Saving Time

The article presents arguments from proponents and opponents of Daylight Saving Time, who disagree on the practice’s impact on energy consumption and safety.

Topic 2: Should the Penny Stay in Circulation?

Analyze the arguments offered and pick which one has the most support.

Topic 3: Is Golf a Sport?

Golf , according to proponents, satisfies the criteria of “sport.” Opponents argue that golf more closely resembles a “game” than a “sport.” Analyze both points of view to see which one has the most support.

Visit our website for more topics as well as full articles on each topic and take our free latest FREE GED practice test 2024 to get ready for your exam!

GED Essay Examples

Getting to know the GED essay sample  can assist you in planning your essay and determining which elements are most vital.

When reading the essay topic, you should truly take your time to collect your views. You will be able to articulate your views better on paper if you organize your thoughts properly. Concentrate on the standards that you learned in English class before you begin writing.

Pay attention to how you use the English language (grammar); you must use proper punctuation and capitalization, and you must use appropriate word solutions.

Tips For Writing Your GED Essay

Make sure you carefully read the stimulus and prompt.

Putting this into practice is an excellent idea. Examine each question carefully and set aside some time to determine the topic and the type of response that will be requested. It is critical to read the questions thoroughly. Students frequently skip past the stimulus and prompt and get right into writing, assuming that they will save time this way. 

This is, by far, the most uninteresting thing to do. Take a few moments to attempt to fully comprehend the questions so that you can reply accurately. If you like, underline the important words and phrases in the stimulus so you can go over it again later to make sure you’re on track.

Make a rough outline for the GED language arts essay

In general, planning your essay will only take a few minutes, but it is critical that you spend that time. Make an outline of the essay and follow it as soon as you have a complete understanding of the questions and have scribbled down some early ideas.

Make an outline for your introduction, body, and conclusion. Following this procedure will save you a lot of time and aid in the development of a logical thought process.

Keep your focus on the topic

To describe your evidence, each paragraph in the body of your response should explain why a piece of evidence supports your claim or disputes the opposing claim. You have the option of describing or restarting it. This demonstrates that you know exactly what it means and how it applies to your claim. Refer to the specifics or facts of a certain issue that you’ve discussed and tie them to your claim.

Include evidence from both passages in your response, and explain why strong evidence supports one thesis and why flawed evidence undermines the other.

Revision and proofreading

By the time you’ve finished writing your essay, you should go back to the beginning and reread it attentively, since you may easily have missed a comma or misspelled a term while doing so.

Pay great attention when rereading your essay to see if it has well-targeted arguments, is arranged properly, contains particular information and facts, has good sentence construction, and has no grammatical or spelling mistakes.

Learn more about how to practice GED essays as well as the whole Language Arts section in GED Language Arts Study Guide  

How To Write a GED Essay?

When writing the GED essay, you should allocate the time as follows:

• 3 minutes to read the directions and the topic
• 5 minutes of prewriting (freewriting, brainstorming , grouping, mapping, etc.)
• 3 minutes to organize (create a thesis statement or controlling idea, and summarize important points)
• 20 minutes to draft (write the essay)
• 8 minutes to revise (go over the essay and make adjustments to concepts)
• 6 minutes to edit (check for grammatical and spelling errors). 

How Your GED Essay Is Scored?

Smart machines that are designed to detect the right answers score your GED essay. So don’t try to be creative; just be accurate.

They will evaluate your essay based on five factors.

• Organization : did you give a well-thought-out approach to writing your essay and were you clear on the main idea?
• Clear and swift response: Did you deal with the matter appropriately, without straying from one emphasis point to another, with a clear and quick response?
• Progress and specifics: instead of utilizing lists or repeating the same material, did you use relevant instances and particular details to expound on your initial notions or arguments?
• Grammar Rules of English: Did you apply proper writing strategies such as sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, syntax, and grammar, and did you shape and revise your essay after you finished the initial draft?
• Word choice : How well did you pick and use appropriate phrases to express your points of view?

Your 45 minutes will fly by, so focus on these key elements to get the best score possible. What is more important is to state unequivocally which side is more popular. Check that your phrases are clear and that your paragraphs are organized logically.

Each of the four modules (independent subtests) in Mathematical Reasoning (Math), Reasoning via Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies can be taken independently. To pass the subtest(s) for which you registered, you must study thoroughly and be efficient on test day. Consider taking our GED Language Arts Practice Test for the Language Arts section.

GED essay writing can be difficult, but you can keep a list of everything you need to know and switch to proper essay writing approaches before the exam. Simply practice a lot and you’ll notice that it gets better over time. So you’ve learned everything there is to know about writing the GED Essay .

How to write an essay for the GED?

• Read through all of the instructions.
• Create an outline.
• Make a list of all the evidence.
• Last, write your introduction.
• Write first, then edit.
• Make use of formal language.
• Don’t look at the time.

Is there an essay portion on the GED test?

How is the ged essay graded.

The essay is graded on a four-point scale by two certified GED essay readers. The scores of the two GED readers are averaged. If the essay achieves a score of 2 or above, it is merged with the language arts multiple-choice score to generate a composite result.

Final Words

In conclusion, this guide on the GED essay provides valuable insights and strategies to help you excel in the GED essay section. By understanding the structure of the GED essay , practicing effective writing techniques, and familiarizing yourself with the scoring rubric, you can approach the GED essay with confidence and achieve a successful outcome. Remember to plan your essay, organize your thoughts, and support your ideas with relevant examples and evidence. Additionally, refining your grammar and punctuation skills will enhance the overall quality of your writing. With consistent practice and a thorough understanding of the expectations for the GED essay, you can showcase your writing abilities and earn a strong score on the GED essay.

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September 19, 2022

• Extended Response

How to do an extended response exam

In an extended response question, you will be given a topic or a question and be given specific instructions on how to respond.

Knowing what the question is asking for, and knowing how to structure your response, is crucial to obtaining the best results.

Understand the question

Read the question carefully to find the key word or phrase in regard to what you need to do.

The most common key words and phrases are listed below with a brief explanation of what you need to do:

Extended Response Structure

Your Extended Response paragraph should follow the same paragraph structure as an analytical essay body paragraph. Parts of a good body paragraph :

1. Topic sentence : The very first sentence that clearly states what you are going to be arguing in the paragraph.

2. Explanation sentence: provides a detailed explanation of what your topic sentence means, or the main points that your sources will focus on. This usually means provided details about a historical person, location or event.

3. Evidence from your  sources : Incorporate a number of good pieces (usually 3-4) of evidence from sources that prove your point for this paragraph. A typical evidence sentence has the following structure:

[Source name] says that [direct/indirect quote] which shows that [explanation] (in-text reference).

For example:

Smith says that "Romans were cruel soldiers", which shows that Roman legionaries had a reputation for excessive violence (1977, 186).

As you incorporate your quotes, ensure you provide analysis and evaluation of your sources. For examples for how to do this, proceed to this section of the History Skills website. 

4. Clincher : Make a clear statement about how all the evidence you provided helps prove what you had stated in your Topic Sentence.  

Example Extended Response

Example Extended Response Question:

How did the differences in Caesar’s and Pompey’s attitudes towards their defeated enemies effect how the Roman people reacted to the two leaders?

Example Extended Response Answer:

The difference between Caesar’s clemency and Pompey’s harsh punishments polarised the Roman populace, causing them to love one but hate the other. On one hand, Caesar spared the lives of the defeated Pompeian soldiers who had fought against him. His clemency was promoted throughout Italy, which increased popular opinion in Caesar’s favour. Caesar himself was reported have said to Cicero, a close political ally, that such a strategy was intended to “willingly win the support of all and gain a permanent victory…grow[ing] strong through pity and generosity” (Cicero, Atticus , VII.11). It must be noted that Cicero demonstrated a favourable opinion towards the future dictator at that point in time, so the senator may have produced this notion on behalf of Caesar. However, the indication is that the stratagem worked and Caesar gained substantial popularity in Italy as a result. In contrast to Caesar’s generosity, Pompey and the optimates were reputedly very harsh towards their enemies. They had announced that those who remained in Rome were to be regarded as enemies (Kamm, 2006, 106). This is confirmed by Goldsworthy, when he notes that after the victory at Dyrrachium, Pompey’s commanders were allowed to mock and execute imprisoned troops in front of Caesar’s army (2006, 421). The news of both Caesar’s and Pompey’s differing attitudes towards defeated enemies had a powerful effect on the Romans. The sharp contrast between the two policies of the two civil war generals impressed the Italians in Caesar’s favour and, as a result, Pompey lost most of his popular support on the peninsula.  

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Utilizing Extended Response Items to Enhance Student Learning

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"Extended response items" have traditionally been called "essay questions." An extended response item is an open-ended question that begins with some type of prompt. These questions allow students to write a response that arrives at a conclusion based on their specific knowledge of the topic. An extended response item takes considerable time and thought. It requires students not only to give an answer but also to explain the answer with as much in-depth detail as possible. In some cases, students not only have to give an answer and explain the answer, but they also have to show how they arrived at that answer.

Teachers love extended response items because they require students to construct an in-depth response that proves mastery or lack thereof. Teachers can then utilize this information to reteach gap concepts or build upon individual student strengths. Extended response items require students to demonstrate a higher depth of knowledge than they would need on a multiple choice item. Guessing is almost completely eliminated with an extended response item. A student either knows the information well enough to write about it or they do not. Extended response items also are a great way to assess and teach students grammar and writing. Students must be strong writers as an extended response item also tests a student's ability to write coherently and grammatically correct.

Extended response items require essential critical thinking skills. An essay, in a sense, is a riddle that students can solve using prior knowledge, making connections, and drawing conclusions. This is an invaluable skill for any student to have. Those who can master it have a better chance of being successful academically.  Any student who can successfully solve problems and craft well-written explanations of their solutions will be at the top of their class. 

Extended response items do have their shortcomings. They are not teacher friendly in that they are difficult to construct and score. Extended response items take a lot of valuable time to develop and grade. Additionally, they are difficult to score accurately. It can become difficult for teachers to remain objective when scoring an extended response item. Each student has a completely different response, and teachers must read the entire response looking for evidence that proves mastery. For this reason, teachers must develop an accurate rubric and follow it when scoring any extended response item.

An extended response assessment takes more time for students to complete than a multiple choice assessment . Students must first organize the information and construct a plan before they can actually begin responding to the item. This time-consuming process can take multiple class periods to complete depending on the specific nature of the item itself.

Extended response items can be constructed in more than one way. It can be passage-based, meaning that students are provided with one or more passages on a specific topic. This information can help them formulate a more thoughtful response. The student must utilize evidence from the passages to formulate and validate their response on the extended response item. The more traditional method is a straightforward, open-ended question on a topic or unit that has been covered in class. Students are not given a passage to assist them in constructing a response but instead must draw from memory their direct knowledge on the topic.

Teachers must remember that formulating a well written extended response is a skill in itself. Though they can be a great assessment tool, teachers must be prepared to spend the time to teach students how to write a formidable essay . This is not a skill that comes without hard work. Teachers must provide students with the multiple skills that are required to write successfully including sentence and paragraph structure, using proper grammar, pre-writing activities, editing, and revising. Teaching these skills must become part of the expected classroom routine for students to become proficient writers.

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GED Essay Tips & Strategies

Most of the GED Reasoning Through Language Arts (RLA) exam is multiple-choice, but there is also one “Extended Response” question. This question requires you to write a short essay in response to two passages of text. The passages will present two different viewpoints on a topic. You must read both of the passages and then decide which argument is best supported . Your essay should include evidence from both passages to prove that one of the authors crafts a better argument.

Please note that you are not being asked to write about which opinion is correct or which opinion you believe to be true. You are being asked to write about which passage best supports its claims. You will have 45 minutes total to read the prompt, read the passages provided, and to draft your essay.

Essay Quick Tips

• Begin your paragraphs with topic sentences that separate your major ideas and keep your argument organized.
• Utilize logical transition words/phrases to seamlessly move from one paragraph to the next.
• Use correct spelling and proper grammar.
• Vary your sentence structure and incorporate appropriate, advanced vocabulary words.
• Stay on topic! Create an outline prior to beginning your essay to organize your thoughts.

Essay Scoring

Your GED essay will be evaluated across three areas:

• Analysis of Arguments and Use of Evidence.
• Development of Ideas and Organizational Structure.
• Clarity and Command of Standard English Conventions.

The task may seem intimidating, but you more than likely already have these skills! Your essay will receive three scores—one for each of the listed areas.

Since you only have 45 minutes, you must make sure to effectively utilize your time. The best way to accomplish this is by practicing essays under the same 45-minute time limit.

Writing Guidelines

Rely upon these timing guidelines as you write your GED essay:

• PLAN — Spend 10 minutes reading the source material and organizing your essay response.
• PRODUCE — Spend 30 minutes writing your (ideally) 5-paragraph essay.
• PROOFREAD — Save 5 minutes for re-reading what you wrote and making necessary changes and improvements.

Remember, since you are typing your essay on the computer screen, proofreading and editing can be done much more quickly than if you were reading over a handwritten essay! Five minutes may not seem like much, but you should be able to read the entire essay over at least once and correct any obvious spelling or grammatical mistakes.

Pro-tip: Don’t start writing until you have every paragraph planned out! Outlining your argument is the best method for producing a coherent and cogent response.

Since the GED RLA extended response is graded by the ACS (Automated Scoring Engine), it is relatively easy to score well if you rely on the organization of a good essay template. Here are a few quick tips regarding clarity to help you score as highly as possible on the GED RLA Extended Response:

Essay Template

Paragraph 1 — Introduction

Start with a 1-sentence general statement regarding the topic. Show that you understand the argument(s) by identifying the topic and its significance, and then present a bold and concise thesis statement; Consider the following example thesis:

Though the first passage highlights important considerations regarding (the topic of) ________, ultimately the second passage is better supported and more convincing.

Paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 — Body Paragraphs

When you plan your essay, you should formulate your thesis (choosing which side you found to be best-supported), and carefully lay out three major reasons why it is best-supported. Each of your body paragraphs should explore one of these ideas.

Use specific examples to support your point of view. Pull selections from the argument you are stating is best supported, and explain why they are good supporting examples, or why they make valid points of consideration.

Each body paragraph should only focus on one major idea, and the 1–2 selections from the passage that support that idea. Try to keep the paragraphs between 4–6 sentences so that they are succinct, direct, and clear. Avoid excessive wordiness; more is not always better!

Paragraph 5 — Conclusion

In 2–3 sentences, wrap up your thoughts, reiterate the accuracy of your thesis (why the argument you chose is better-supported), and leave the reader with an idea of WHY they should give more consideration to the topic. You can also use the conclusion to offer a degree of concession to the opposing argument, conceding that there are one or two good qualities of the other passage, before echoing that the passage you selected is ultimately better-supported and more convincing.

Finally, don’t worry about choosing the “wrong” side. It doesn’t matter which side you choose, just be sure that you can quote specific examples from the source texts to support your ideas!

Now, review our sample prompt and practice writing an essay!

GED Essay Prompt >>

English exam prep: Extended responses

Danielle Barakat

Community Manager at Atomi

Here’s the thing, whether you like it or not every single one of you HSC students will have to write an essay or 40 in the next year. English is compulsory for everyone which means you all have to be able to put together at least a semi-decent essay or extended response. Essay writing can be tricky enough without the pressure of an exam, but add in that time pressure and sometimes our brain can go into meltdown mode…

If you check out our Preparing for an in-class essay post, we go through how to construct and prep your essay for an in-class assessment. It's generally pretty similar to what you'd do for your exam so I am not going to go through that again. What i'm going to focus on now is how to go about writing it in an actual exam situation (i.e. Trials or the HSC). So let’s jump right in:

During the exam

1. 👏 read 👏 every 👏 word 👏 of 👏 the 👏 question 👏 properly 👏.

This point seems so obvious but is so often forgotten in an exam. It’s so simple. Just make sure you read every word of the essay question carefully. Make sure you’re following the instructions and paying attention to the little things that might actually be the big things. For example, do they want a speech or essay? Do they want at leas t one related text or no more than one related text?

Don’t skip this step and you’ll be off to a good start!

2. Draft a quick essay plan

Whether you think so or not, there’s always time to quickly plan out your essay in an exam. Do this. Every. Single. Time. It’s worth it, trust me. The fear and adrenaline of an exam might want to take over your brain at this stage and you might be urged to start writing as quickly as possible so you can just get your essay out of your head and onto the paper before you forget it. But stop. Take a few minutes and plan it out a bit first, You want to basically write down your thesis and the structure/order of your body paragraphs. If you want a bit more detail on exactly how to plan properly, check this out .

3. Time management, it ain’t no joke!

When it comes to managing your time in an exam you need to be wary of two things: the time you need to write your essay and the time you need to finish the entire exam. Now you’re probably sitting there going hang on, aren’t these the same thing? And the answer is no.

You have to leave yourself enough time in the entire exam to write a good quality essay. We think 45 minutes is ideal. So my tip here would be to try and optimise your time in the first two sections of the paper, especially in the creative writing section. Now we have tried and tested this, and it seems that you can actually bang out a really great creative in 30 mins instead of 40, which gives you some extra time for the essay section.

Now when it comes to having enough time to actually write your essay, these couple of weeks of studying will give you an indication of the time limits and your progress. For example, you should know that your intro and first 2 paragraphs take about 20 minutes to write. So if you’re 20 mins in and you’ve only written your intro and 1 body paragraph, you know that you need to pick up the pace a little bit. If you realise you can’t do it in the time, then head back to your plan and start thinking about sections you can cut down. But this is the last resort. If you manage your time properly, you should be able to write the essay that you want in 40-45 minutes.

4. Write out your evidence so you don’t forget it

This tip isn’t for everyone, but I know a lot of people will find this tip really handy. Every essay needs evidence and I am sure you’re all cramming your brains with quotes, dates or stats so it’s worth having a strategy in place to make sure you remember to include it all and don’t leave out anything important. So what I would do as soon as I could start writing in an exam is quickly jot down the keywords of some of the quotes that I knew I definitely wanted to include in my response. So if I had a total mind blank I would be able to just go back and jog my memory rather than sitting there wasting time trying to wrack my brain to remember it.

5. Structure is important

This point also has a lot to do with planning (clearly you can see some of my OCD shining through in this post) but it’s super important when it comes to extended responses that you consider the structure of your answers. Make a structure during your planning and stick to it. That’s super important. Keep your paragraphs structured too, whether it’s PEEL, T-V-E or some other acronym that your paragraphs are set out to, stick to this so you can ensure you’re making clear, concise points and have enough time to get everything in before those 2 hours are up.

6. Take a minute

Mind blanks are really common for everyone in exams so don’t freak out and think you’re the only one who suddenly can’t remember anything when they open up that exam paper. This is a pretty stressful feeling and can sometimes be very overwhelming, but remember everything is in there, it’s just the stress and adrenaline that’s blocking your mind. So take a minute and breathe. Stop writing and let the anxiety exit your body before you end up writing a whole paragraph just to realise it’s a whole bunch of nothing. Waffling effects the clarity of your essay, and remember the marking criteria? It’s about having a logical, concise response. Give yourself a few seconds to try and think of your argument again and in most cases, it does start to come back to you. If you really can’t remember the point you were trying to make, either move on and come back later or just cut your losses, conclude that point and move on. Sometimes it’s the only way.

7. Keywords and source material

Not every essay question in an exam gives you stimulus or source material (like a quote) that you need to include in your response, but for the ones that do it’s crucial that you don’t just ignore these. Make sure you read the material and actually try and understand the relevance of the material in regards to the question they’re asking you. Here are a few examples:

• If they ask you to discuss, this means you need to pinpoint the issues raised by that statement and provide examples and analysis for and/or against each of those issues.
• If they ask you to explain you need to relate the cause and effect and make the relationship between things evident, by examples. You also need to provide why and how these things are related.
• If they ask: to what extent, t his one is a little bit more in depth. Here you will have to make a judgement call about what they’re asking. So for example, if the question is ‘To what extent is this view represented…’ then you need to make a judgement about how much the themes and ideas in your texts support the given statement. This doesn’t always have to be black and white, you can argue both sides just as long as at the end you make a conclusion and have enough evidence to back up everything you’re saying.

How you use the source material in an exam is really going to depend on the NESA key term that’s used in the question. These can all be found here . So make sure you know what these words mean and how to use them to incorporate the stimulus given.

And we’re done!

Just remember that writing essays in exams really comes down to being as prepared as possible and having a really good strategy in place. This is why practising now is going to get you ahead of the game. Manage your time, plan out your response and properly answer the question and you’ll be on the path to smashing it.

Happy essay writing... 😬

Published on

February 22, 2019

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Language Arts Extended Response

Videos: how to write a great ged extended response.

Overview of the GED Extended Response Format (1:28)

Video 1 of 8: How to Pass the GED Extended Response (3:14)

Video 2 of 8: How to Determine Which Position is Best Supported (2:49)

Video 3 of 8: How to Write a Well-Supported Argument (4:21)

Video 4 of 8: How to Make a Plan and Write an Introduction (3:25)

Video 5 of 8: How to Write the Body and Conclusion (4:47)

Video 6 of 8: How to Write a Fully Supported Response (3:34)

Video 7 of 8: How to Check and Revise Your Response (2:58)

Video 8 of 8: Understand How Your Response is Scored (3:14)

Extended Response Resources

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Google Gemini (Bard) vs ChatGPT – Which AI Tool is Best in 2024?

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August 7, 2024

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AI chatbots are making everyone’s life easier.

But two tools have entirely transformed people’s work: Google Gemini (previously Bard) and ChatGPT.

No one thought AI tools would become a solid part of our workday to the extent they already have.

And why not? An AI chatbot will take a lot off your plate—from doing academic research and writing emails to coding and composing songs!

Productivity hacks have a new name: AI.

The real question is: Is using artificial intelligence a novelty for organizations, or will it help people work smarter? 

We will do an ultimate showdown between Google Gemini and ChatGPT for you to decide based on facts.

We also have a great third option for people who want more. So, stay with us till the end! 

What is Google Gemini?

In February of 2023, Google released an artificial intelligence bot, Bard.

Experts claim Bard (now Gemini) is Google’s response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Gemini is built on Google’s AI language model for dialogue applications (LaMDA).

According to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, Gemini is an experimental conversational AI service that answers questions and provides information like Google search in a refined manner.

He says: “The technology can combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge and draw on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.”

Interestingly, human reviewers assess Gemini’s conversations to improve the quality of responses.

Gemini’s strength lies in its ability to offer simple and contextual answers (as opposed to endless pages of web content).

Google Gemini features

The way Gemini retrieves information is what sets it apart from other AI chatbots.

It extracts data in real-time, having been trained in conversational data (instead of books, articles, etc.), making it a chattier chatbot than others.

Here’s a look at its top three features:

1. Gemini extensions

Google keeps upgrading Gemini’s features, with the latest one being—Gemini Extensions—a chatbot that pulls your information from Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Drive accounts, and more.

For instance, let’s assume you plan to go to the Grand Canyon with your work team.

Instead of juggling multiple tabs and wasting time asking who’s free and when, let Google Gemini’s AI model take over.

This AI-powered tool will:

• Get the dates that work for everyone from Gmail
• Look up real-time flight as well as hotel details
• Send Google Maps directions to the airport
• Provide YouTube videos of things to do there

2. Assistant with Gemini

Google Gemini has also rolled out a new feature that may be particularly interesting to you: Assistant in Gemini. It is the marriage of a personalized assistant that will listen to you and a generative AI technology that will reason with and respond to you.

Use text, voice, or images to interact with this tool and get your personalized assistant.

Here’s an example of how helpful the Assistant in Google Gemini is:

Say you want to upload a pic of your puppy on social media. But you struggle with ‘smart’ captions.

Assistant with Gemini will help.

All you need to do is float the overlay on top of your photo and ask it to pen a quick social media post for you.

Assistant with Gemini will use the image as the primary visual cue and curate a contextual post for you.

This conversational overlay has a first-mover advantage, having never been tried by any brand before!

3. “Google it” (G) button

Gemini has also introduced another exciting feature with its ‘Google it’ button to double-check its answers quickly.

When you click on the ‘G’ icon after a result, Gemini reviews the response and evaluates if there is similar content across the web to substantiate it.

To get insights into similar content by Google Search, click the highlighted phrases.

Share a Gemini chat with a public link to continue the conversation with someone else. The person you share it with can ask Gemini additional questions about that topic and build on the exchange.

Google Gemini Limitations

While Google Gemini stands out with its unique features and extensive real-time information capabilities, it’s important to address the limitations that users might face. Understanding these constraints adds a layer of transparency and helps users set realistic expectations. Here are a few Google Gemini limitations to consider:

• Dependence on the internet: Gemini requires an active internet connection to function, limiting its accessibility in areas with poor connectivity.
• Data Privacy Concerns: Given Gemini’s integration with personal Google services like Gmail and Drive, users may have concerns regarding how their data is used and protected.
• Limited Contextual Understanding: While Gemini is proficient in handling a wide range of queries, its ability to understand and process highly nuanced or domain-specific questions can be limited.
• Inconsistencies in Responses: Occasionally, Gemini may produce responses that lack consistency or contradict previous answers, reflecting the challenges in maintaining coherence over extended interactions.
• Adaptation to New Information: Gemini’s ability to incorporate the latest developments or breaking news into its responses can be delayed, impacting the relevancy of its answers.

Google Gemini pricing

• Free to use with no caps on the number of questions you ask!

What is ChatGPT?

Released in November 2022, ChatGPT is OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot that answers questions and prompts in any format you want.

ChatGPT’s superpower is that despite being an artificial intelligence tool, it carries out human-like conversations.

Moreover, this generative AI tool does what only humans have been capable of doing until now—creative thinking.

• Write poems, emails, blogs, articles, content calendar templates , social media posts, essays, etc.
• Summarize podcasts and transcripts
• Solve complex Mathematical problems
• Identify keywords for SEO

ChatGPT features

• ChatGPT pulls information from mountains worth of data and large AI language models to formulate natural, human-like responses for entertainment, business, and educational use cases 
• Contrary to what people believe, ChatGPT is not sentient
• ChatGPT formulates responses from the transformer predicting text. This includes the next word, sentence, paragraph, and so on based on the sequences of text that experts have trained on

1. New voice and image capabilities

Want to have a voice conversation or show ChatGPT what you’re talking about? Well, now it’s possible.

ChatGPT is rolling out new voice and image capabilities, offering a more intuitive interface type.

Say you’re at home and want to know what to make for dinner.

You only need to snap a picture of your fridge and pantry to get suggestions! Ask follow-up questions for a step-by-step recipe! 

2. Custom versions of ChatGPT—GPTs

If you think ChatGPT does not offer personalized inputs, the platform’s new GPTs update will surprise you.

You can now create your custom version of ChatGPT for any specific purpose in your daily life—and share said creation with others:

For example, GPTs help teach your kid math or even design stickers, for that matter.

Test drive the platform to see for yourself!

3. Prompt examples

The platform has also made initiating a new conversation slightly less intimidating, thanks to the introduction of ‘Prompt Examples.’

So now, instead of staring at the blank space, use sample AI prompt templates at the beginning of a chat to drive engaging and meaningful conversations.

ChatGPT Limitations

Despite the impressive capabilities that ChatGPT brings to the table, it has its limitations. Understanding these limitations is crucial for users to set realistic expectations and find workarounds for their specific needs. Here’s a look at some of the notable limitations of ChatGPT:

• Data Recency: ChatGPT’s knowledge is based on information available up to its last training cut-off. This means it can’t provide updates or information on events that occurred after this date.
• Misinformation Risk: Given its reliance on pre-existing data, ChatGPT may inadvertently generate responses that contain inaccuracies or outdated information.
• Context Understanding: While ChatGPT is skilled at generating human-like responses, it may struggle with understanding the context or nuances of certain questions, leading to irrelevant or generic answers.
• Ethical and Moral Reasoning: ChatGPT may not always align with human ethics or moral reasoning, especially in situations that require nuanced understanding and empathy.
• Dependence on Input Quality: The quality of ChatGPT’s responses heavily relies on the clarity and specificity of the input prompts. Vague or ambiguous questions may lead to unclear or unsatisfactory answers.

ChatGPT pricing

• ChatGPT-4: $20 /month

ChatGPT vs Google Gemini: Is There a Winner?

We’ve covered ChatGPT and Google Gemini’s unique features to make your life easier.

But let’s address the elephant in the room: ‘Is one better than the other?’

Read on to explore a few critical differences between ChatGPT and Google Gemini and understand if there is a clear winner.

1. Generative capabilities

Gemini doesn’t boast the same generative AI capabilities as ChatGPT.

Let’s see what these AI tools show when I write the prompt, ‘Write an essay on why we feel sad about Matthew Perry dying.’

First up, we have Gemini’s response:

While Gemini’s goal (at least at the moment) is to support Google search, it also writes creatively for you. The conclusive message on mental health towards the end is an excellent addition to the essay, which differs from the ChatGPT version.

ChatGPT, too, does a great job of delivering a high-quality essay that doesn’t stray off the path.

The verdict: It is a tie when it comes to evaluating the generative AI capabilities of both ChatGPT and Google Gemini. 

2. Training model

One of the key differences between Google Gemini and ChatGPT is the type of Large Language Models (LLMs) they employ.

While Gemini is on the PaLM 2 architecture, ChatGPT is on the Transformer architecture.

But what does this mean for a user like you and me?

ChatGPT’s research stems from feeding training data into the system. Naturally, the research quickly becomes dated.

Gemini, in contrast, scours web pages in real-time, making the conversations more relevant to ensure more up to date answers.

Our verdict: Gemini has the upper hand for the latest information, given its training model.

3. Modify responses + Image uploads

Google Gemini allows users to modify the response by the tool and offers many options for the same.

The AI chatbot also enables you to upload image attachments.

Both these features are not available on the free version of ChatGPT. However, ChatGPT allows you to give feedback on the response and regenerate it.

Our verdict: Both ChatGPT and Google Gemini give users some options regarding making changes to the response quality. So, it would be a tie .

4. Integrations

In terms of integrations, Google Gemini’s extensions offer more convenience as they are tailored for common Google tools that people use every day.

On the other hand, ChatGPT offers unique custom versions (GPTs) to suit personal needs.  It also allows image and voice inputs.

Our verdict: ChatGPT has an edge for offering custom versions, but Google Gemini’s extensions are a massive source of help to most users who work with multiple Google tools.

5. User Experience and Accessibility

When evaluating Google Gemini and ChatGPT, considering the user experience and ease of accessibility is critical. Google Gemini seamlessly integrates with all other Google apps, making it inherently more accessible for users already within the Google ecosystem. Its intuitive interface and conversational overlay make it easy for users of all levels of technological proficiency to engage with Gemini.

ChatGPT, while not directly integrated with specific platforms, is known for its responsive and straightforward user interface. Its capability to understand and generate human-like text across various topics makes it accessible and valuable to a broad audience. ChatGPT’s introduction of voice and image capabilities also significantly enhances its accessibility, catering to users who prefer audio-visual interactions over text.

Our verdict: For Google Workspace users, Gemini may offer a more seamless experience. However, ChatGPT’s versatile and user-friendly interface, coupled with its innovative voice and image features, makes it highly accessible and appealing to a wide range of users, marking this category as a tie.

Google Gemini Vs. ChatGPT on Reddit

Let’s turn to Reddit to see what users say about ChatGPT Vs. Google Gemini rivalry.

When you search Google Gemini Vs. ChatGPT on Reddit , you’ll see polarizing opinions on both.

Some users say, “Google might have a scale advantage in data and compute.” Plus, another user notes, “The fact that LaMDA isn’t a static model and is constantly updating itself is a massive advantage over GPT-3.5.”

But not all scales tip in favor of Gemini. 

Some users feel that ChatGPT’s responses provide more quality and accurracy as compared to Gemini.

Here’s an interesting distinction a user makes that might be worth looking into:

“For looking up current information, Gemini is a mile better than ChatGPT with browsing. The “with browsing” implementation in Bing and ChatGPT is absolutely terrible. I’m presuming Google can leverage cached search queries to return current information much more quickly. Gemini also does a much better job of formatting responses, it includes pictures etc., and it’s faster.

However, Google Gemini provides a lot of fake/unreliable information, IMO more than ChatGPT does. And I don’t think it’s as good at the “other” sorts of “write me a poem” kinds of tasks. So personally I think this is now a 2-way race. ChatGPT for raw capability of the model, Gemini for current info lookup and usability in general .”

The Best Alternative to ChatGPT vs. Google Gemini

I tried using Google Gemini and ChatGPT to spin a blog on its comparative features.

However, both AI tools need more regarding factual accuracy and verified research.

AI is still evolving in the new-age battle of Google Gemini vs ChatGPT alternatives . 

Luckily, a third option is a better natural fit for your AI chatbot needs: ClickUp AI .  

1. ClickUp Brain

Instead of streamlining workflows, spend your time ideating, creating, and doing things a machine will not do.

And ClickUp Brain cuts your workflow time in half. Tailor this AI-powered assistant to any role of your choosing.

It comprises hundreds of research-backed AI tools for every function and use case—from project management and customer support to product engineering and marketing.

For instance, get a personal copy editor who will work on your writing to make it clearer, more concise, and more engaging.

You don’t need to invest in separate AI writing tools to get the job done.

Use pre-structured headers, tables, etc., to structure your content better. All in all, ClickUp is one of the best AI content generators in the market that focuses on content quality, accuracy, and relevance.

ClickUp Brain has advanced summarising capabilities. See a long comments thread on a task? Use ClickUp Brain to summarise the whole thread for you in seconds so you grasp the context immediately.

Just got off a long customer meeting. Get to the critical action points sooner with ClickUp AI.

2. ClickUp Docs

Creating wikis, Docs, etc., is one part of the equation, but mapping it to your workflows and allowing the team to work on it together is equally important. ClickUp Docs does this and more.

Features like nested pages and styling options take your Doc to the next level.

With ClickUp Docs, embed bookmarks and add tables to roadmaps, knowledge bases, and other documents.

Using Google Docs, edit with the team in real-time, tag comments like you’d tag on Instagram or Facebook, assign action items, and more.

3. ClickUp Tasks

Organizing tasks are the foundation for successful projects. Use ClickUp Tasks to assign tasks to multiple assignees and add comment threads for different tasks.

Save time with shareable screen recordings and leave little to no chance for errors

But ClickUp Tasks is not unidimensional—it lets you customize subtasks and surface the information you need at your fingertips!

Customize your Workspace and manage work while defining task types your team understands best.

Try all these features for free and supercharge your productivity.

ClickUp pricing

• Free Forever: $0
• Unlimited: $7 per member per month
• Business: $12 per member per month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing
• ClickUp AI: Add to any paid plan for $5 per member per month

Optimize your Workflows with AI Tools

ClickUp’s AI chatbot automates every aspect of your work so that you can focus on what truly matters—your customers.

Instead of toggling between AI project management tools , designing apps, and content creation apps , get everything together with ClickUp. You get the added advantage of simple navigation across various tools and effective collaboration between multiple teams.

Sign up for ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan to see how ClickUp AI supercharges your productivity 10x.

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U.S. Stock Market Sees Biggest Daily Drop in Nearly 2 Years

U.S. stocks tumbled after markets, rattled by reports of a slowing American economy, recorded heavy declines in Asia and Europe.

• Share full article

S&P 500

The New York Times

Here’s what to know about the market meltdown.

Stocks on Wall Street suffered their sharpest decline in nearly two years on Monday, tracking a global rout that came as investors zeroed in on signs of a slowing American economy.

Monday’s drop extended a sell-off that had begun last week, after the U.S. jobs report on Friday that showed significantly slower hiring, with unemployment rising to its highest level in nearly three years. This deepened fears that the world’s largest economy could be slowing sharply and that the Federal Reserve may have waited too long to cut interest rates.

The decline was exacerbated by other factors , including concerns that technology stocks had run up too far too fast, and that a suddenly strengthening yen would hurt the prospects of Japanese companies and some global traders.

U.S. markets. The S&P 500 fell about 3 percent , its worst decline since September 2022. The technology heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 3.4 percent.

Tech stocks. A number of big technology stocks — which have sway over the broad market because of their size — were sharply lower again on Monday. Nvidia dropped more than 6 percent, Apple Amazon and Alphabet all fell more than 4 percent.

Fed rates. Based on the weakness in the U.S. jobs report, Goldman Sachs said in a note that it now expected the Fed to cut rates at its next three meetings — in September, November and December — a more aggressive timetable for cuts than the investment bank had previously expected. At their meeting last week, Fed officials held interest rates at a two-decade high, where they have remained for a year.

Economic data. Investors were presented with some upbeat data on Monday. The Institute for Supply Management’s report on services came in at 51.4 percent, indicating that purchasing managers see business expanding, after June’s more downbeat number.

Global markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 12.4 percent, its biggest one-day decline, larger than the plunge during the Black Monday crash in October 1987. At one point, the plunge in Japanese and Korean stocks tripped a “circuit breaker” mechanism that halts trading to allow markets to digest large fluctuations. The Pan-European Stoxx index fell 1.5 percent, rallying from a large fall earlier in the day, as every major market on the continent recorded declines.

What should you do? In times of market turmoil, there is often an urge to sell. But there is no reason to think that you can predict what will happen in the markets in the next few hours or in the near future. It’s better not to try .

Danielle Kaye

The S&P 500 fell 3 percent, its worst day since September 2022. This drop brings the index down 8.5 percent from an all-time peak in July – but it’s still up 8.7 percent in 2024 overall.

Lydia DePillis

In another bit of reassuring data, the Fed’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on bank lending practices reported stable demand for commercial and industrial loans, even in the face of tighter standards. Demand for real estate loans continued to weaken, however.

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The S&P 500 is currently down 2.44 percent. If it were to close at that level, it would be the biggest daily drop since December 2022 – even steeper than two weeks ago, when the index took a major hit from disappointing Alphabet and Tesla earnings reports. But there’s still plenty of time before the market closes in about two hours.

Jeanna Smialek

It’s worth noting that while some commentators make the point that stock sell-offs can trickle out to slow the real economy, Fed officials generally take the view that the sell-offs need to last for a while to do so.

“It’s worth just remembering that that the Fed’s job is to act in a steady manner based on the totality of the data, not to overindex on what the market wants today,” Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told me earlier.

Talmon Joseph Smith

The Sahm Rule points to a recession. Here’s what the rule maker thinks.

A key driver of recent market anxiety has been a turning point in employment data that has historically been a recession warning: the Sahm Rule.

Conceived in 2019 by the former Fed economist Claudia Sahm , the “rule” shows that the U.S. economy has been in the early innings of a recession whenever the unemployment rate’s three-month moving average (which smooths out data volatility) exceeds the lowest three-month moving average of the past year by half a percentage point or more. U.S. unemployment is 0.53 percent higher than that trough, based on the July employment report issued on Friday.

The unemployment rate remains low but has slowly risen for four consecutive months. And this labor market slowdown, to an extent, was welcomed by the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rates high to cool the economy and rid it of the elevated inflation that remains. (Inflation is now half a percentage point above its 2 percent target, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge.) But markets now fully expect that Fed policymakers will ease credit conditions, by cutting interest rates at their next meeting in September.

The question and concern, partly expressed in the market sell-off, is whether that will be too late to avoid a recession — a contraction of economic output.

“Given everything we know, or that we think we know, the United States is not in a recession,” Ms. Sahm said in an interview on Monday. “But the risk of going into a recession in, say, in the next three to six months? Those have really gone up.”

Ms. Sahm said her recession indicator “was designed thinking of fiscal policy” and meant to give Congress an early heads-up about when to use its spending power to intervene and counteract economic deceleration.

But “in some sense,” she added, “the Sahm Rule may now be giving the signal the Fed needs” during this business cycle.

The Sahm Rule communicates a clear empirical pattern: Normally, once the unemployment rate rises substantially, it lurches upward. But for the sake of workers’ employment prospects, Ms. Sahm doesn’t want it to portend a downturn this time. And she pointed to “very good reasons” that her rule “could falter in this cycle” — namely “big disruptions in the labor force with the pandemic.”

“We have millions of people drop out of the labor force suddenly, and then we went into labor shortages, and we’re scrambling for workers, and that pushes the unemployment rate down,” she said, describing the pandemic lockdowns and recovery. “And now, in recent years, we’ve had a big influx in immigration, and you’ve got a weakening demand of workers versus an increasing supply of workers.”

Some economists say the rise in the unemployment rate and consequent triggering of the Sahm Rule may have been skewed by the impact of Hurricane Beryl on Texas, despite a note from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the storm “had no discernible effect” on the jobs data.

And while there were some signs of weakness before Friday — like an increase in delinquent payments among lower-income households — the most recent snapshots of the economy have been good, even great by historical standards.

In the most recent quarter, productivity increased at a thumping 2.7 percent from a year earlier , corporate profits continued to grow and overall economic growth clocked in at a better-than-expected 2.8 percent annual rate.

And yet that’s the very nature of turning points: Whenever they occur, the last bits of backward-looking data before the turn tend to look bright.

“I think some of the market reaction is asking, ‘Where are we headed?’ not ‘Where are we?’” Ms. Sahm said.

Greg Daco, chief economist at the accounting firm EY, thinks the market panic is “disproportionate.” “This seems like an overreaction, especially given the limited economic data and Fed communication expected this week,” he wrote in a note to clients, mentioning several healthy indicators.

In fact, Mr. Daco said, the downturn itself could be a danger, rather than economic fundamentals. “The primary concern remains the breadth and depth of the market selloff and its potential to tighten financial conditions, subsequently impacting the private sector and leading to economic retrenchment,” he wrote.

Even if the market reaction seems unmoored from the totality of the economic data, a collective stampede can tip off a recession if it snowballs into the real economy. This was a concern even in 2019 , when labor market conditions looked very good, and continued into 2022 , as the Fed rapidly raised rates.

Thousands of users have reported online brokerage outages as stocks tumbled.

Online stock trading platforms, including Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab, said users had trouble logging into their accounts on Monday morning, preventing some investors from making trades amid a panic sell-off that reverberated around the world.

More than 15,000 Schwab clients, as well as 3,700 users of Fidelity and 2,800 of Vanguard, had complained about access issues by midmorning, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks outages. Account holders at the popular trading platforms E-Trade and Robinhood also reported issues.

Some Schwab clients had trouble logging onto its platforms because of an unspecified technical issue, the trading platform confirmed in a post on X .

Complaints dipped significantly by late morning as the brokerages started to restore access. By noon, there were fewer than 500 complaints from Schwab users, Downdetector reported, based on its own data and user reports on social media. In response to complaints from customers on X , Fidelity posted around 11 a.m. that the issue had been resolved.

But frustration lingered among clients who were unable to immediately move their assets when markets opened. In early trading on Monday, the S&P 500 fell more than 4 percent , while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped nearly 6 percent.

David Fonseca, a Fidelity account holder in Knoxville, Tenn., said he had hoped to sell some of his stock options as soon as the market opened Monday morning, but he couldn’t load anything on his accounts for several minutes. Once he eventually gained limited access, he tried to sell but was blocked.

“It was kind of nerve-racking to see things moving when I wanted to sell,” Mr. Fonseca said. “I felt really, really nervous.”

Shwab, Vanguard and Fidelity didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the cause of the disruptions.

Austan Goolsbee, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, just told me: “We’ve got to be monitoring the real side of the economy: There’s nothing in the Fed’s mandate that’s about making sure the stock market is comfortable.”

I asked Goolsbee if he thought an inter-meeting Fed rate cut was possible, and he said that the question was about something that was not in his “wheelhouse.” But when I asked him to clarify a comment he made on CNBC this morning that the Fed could “fix it” if conditions deteriorated, he said that he was talking about the Fed’s dual mandate goals — employment and inflation — and not about the stock market.

“Our job is to act, the market’s job is to react to things, and they react on a timetable that’s different from the F.O.M.C. timetable,” Goolsbee told me, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's rate-setting body.

Eshe Nelson

The FTSE 100, Britain’s benchmark index, fell just over 2 percent, its worst day since July 2023. The FTSE 250, which is considered to be a better gauge of the country’s economy because it’s made up of more domestic companies, closed down by 2.8 percent.

It’s also worth noting that while some commentators make the point that stock sell-offs can trickle out to slow the real economy, Fed officials generally take the view that the sell-offs need to last for a while to do so.

The S&P has fallen dramatically in the last few days but is still up roughly 9 percent for the year. At its peak on July 16th, it was up 19 percent.

Jim Tankersley

The next month in the economy could be crucial for the presidential election.

It didn’t take long for former President Donald J. Trump to make a political weapon out of Monday’s market sell-off. “Stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to World War III, and we have two of the most incompetent ‘leaders’ in history,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “This is not good.”

The post underscored Mr. Trump’s longstanding fixation on stock indexes as a barometer of economic health. It also reinforced the degree to which economic messaging — and the health of the economy itself — will play a key role in the sprint finish ahead of the presidential vote in November.

American voters consistently tell pollsters that the economy and consumer prices are the most important issues facing the country. The former president and his presumptive Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, are seeking to sell voters on diametrically opposite stories about the economy’s health.

Mr. Trump wants voters to believe the economy is on the brink of catastrophe, and that Ms. Harris and President Biden are to blame. He has joined a chorus of negativity that has in some ways worked: Polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans believe the economy is in recession, even though economic statistics suggest it is not. Economic growth was surprisingly strong in the first half of the year. Job growth has remained relatively strong, even with the slowdown in job creation in July.

“This moment could set off a real economic calamity around the globe,” Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, posted on X on Monday. “It requires steady leadership — the kind President Trump delivered for four years.”

(Mr. Trump’s presidency included a rapid descent into a pandemic recession in 2020, including a steep drop in the stock market that was followed by a rebound that summer.)

Ms. Harris has stressed economic optimism in speeches. “We believe in a future that keeps America’s economy the strongest in the world,” she said in Houston this month. “Where every person has the opportunity to build a business, to own a home, to build intergenerational wealth.”

Unexpected events, like a prolonged market downturn or a new set of encouraging economic stats, could sway some voters’ economic perceptions before the election.

So could the Federal Reserve. If officials at the central bank cut interest rates in September, they could help to push down borrowing costs for Americans buying homes, cars and other big-ticket items on credit — a move that White House economists have long believed could help reinforce the idea that inflation is under control and the outlook for consumers is improving. That could help Ms. Harris.

But many Democrats worry that the Fed, by holding rates steady last month, may have hurt Ms. Harris — by opening the door for the market sell-off, which appears to be driven in part by investors’ fears that Fed officials waited too long to start cutting rates.

Joe Rennison

There has been some moderation in the sell-off in the U.S. with the S&P 500 now down 2.5 percent, having opened almost 4 percent lower. Government bond yields have also retraced some of their move but have still fallen sharply over the past week.

Last week, before the U.S. jobs report and concerns about U.S. growth rattled markets, the Bank of England cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years. Policymakers lowered rates by a quarter point but warned that future cuts would only come slowly as most members of the rate-setting committee remain concerned that Britain hasn’t completely stamped out inflationary pressures.

Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” the VIX volatility index, surged on Monday, reaching its highest level since the onset of the pandemic. The index measures how much investors think stocks will swing over the next month: The sharp rise is a sign that there is a lot of worry, even as some investors have sought to calm the current sense of panic.

Today’s market turmoil is fueling a big question: Did the Fed wait too long to lower interest rates and squander a soft landing in the process?

“There are no mulligans in monetary policy, unfortunately, but we’ll probably look back and say — yes, they waited too long,” Michael Feroli from J.P. Morgan told me earlier.

That said, it’s early days. Friday’s jobs report showed some worrying signs, but some of that could have been weather weirdness. Consumer spending data have been OK. Overall growth data is slow to adjust at inflection points, but it has held up. For now, the picture is of a slowing economy, not a tanking one.

David Yaffe-Bellany

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies plunge, mirroring global markets.

The prices of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies plunged over the last two days, mirroring the volatility in global stock markets and ending a run of growth and excitement in the crypto industry.

Bitcoin’s price has dropped about 12 percent since Sunday, falling to roughly $53,000. The price of Ether, the second most valuable cryptocurrency, was down nearly 20 percent over the same period.

The precipitous falls show that digital currencies, once envisioned as an alternate asset class that would be shielded from gyrations in the world economy, remain vulnerable to the same broader economic forces that affect technology stocks and risky investments. And the panic is a reminder that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, prone to dramatic increases and decreases in value.

Just a few days ago, the crypto industry was flying high. In January, the approval of a new financial product tied to the price of Bitcoin prompted a market surge that propelled Bitcoin to its highest-ever price. The excitement even led to a wave of new memecoins , the digital currencies tied to internet jokes.

That enthusiasm came to an end on Sunday, as global markets plunged. The panic was caused by several factors, including a slowdown in U.S. job creation and concerns that tech stocks had increased too quickly.

As the price of Bitcoin cratered, investors shared despondent memes on X, while industry leaders tried to reassure crypto fans that the market would rebound.

“Yikes,” Cameron Winklevoss, one of the founders of the crypto exchange Gemini, wrote on X on Sunday. And then a few minutes later: “Everything is fine.”

Tripp Mickle

Apple shares fell more than 5 percent on Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported that it had sold nearly half its stake in the tech giant. Berkshire first invested in Apple in 2016 and accumulated a nearly 6 percent stake that was worth more than $150 billion. Over the past eight years, Apple’s stock has risen or fallen based on whether or not Berkshire bought or sold shares of the company.

Alan Rappeport

While Trump is talking up the “Kamala Crash” today, he was taking a much different approach in February 2020 when the the stock market crashed on his watch due to pandemic fears. At that time, his advisers urged investors to “buy the dip,” and he suggested on social media, “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

Melissa Eddy

Many economists had the impression that a correction was in the cards, said Klaus-Jürgen Gern, a researcher with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. “Various factors are coming together in a way that is triggering very strong reactions,” he said. “I do believe that a correction is now taking place.”

”The danger is that some of the fears that may have triggered this slide coincide with this considerable increase in tension in the Middle East, which then also raises concerns about a new external shock that could then hit the global economy as a whole,” he added.

It’s especially wild given the relative recency of that negative data. Employment growth was surprisingly robust up until July. The relatively weak report last month — 114,000 jobs and a jump in the unemployment rate to 4.3 percent — contained some indications that tumultuous weather might have been at play.

Meanwhile, rate cut chatter has already been pulling mortgage interest rates down. Freddie Mac reported last week that mortgage rates — which began their rise to over 7 percent in late 2021 — fell to the lowest level since this past February.

Advice: When the stock market drops, stay calm and do nothing.

Think of what’s happening in the stock market as a kind of fire drill. As we all know from childhood, one of the primary rules is not to panic. And in this case, panicking would mean selling stocks when the market is falling.

You run drills to stay sharp, but we haven’t had much experience with the S&P 500 stock index falling by more than 3 percent in a single day. According to Howard Silverblatt of S&P Dow Jones Indices, the last time it happened was Sept. 13, 2022.

Given that it’s been a nearly two-year stretch, we can excuse ourselves for getting a bit sloppy. So many people got nervous and ran to check or trade investments Monday morning, and many of them had trouble logging into brokerage firm websites and apps including those of Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard.

But really, why sell at a moment like this? It’s not a rhetorical question, so let’s try to answer it.

Selling is smart if you know that the stock market is about to fall by a lot and stay down for a long time. Most people don’t know, however, and those who got it right in 2022 or 2020 or 2008 or 2000 or 1987 may not know the difference between the skill they think they have and the luck that probably helped them back then.

Many of the people who traded furiously on Monday are professional investors of various sorts — or the robots they programmed to automatically sell when this or that indicator flashes yellow or red. But here’s a dirty little secret about, say, hedge funds: All of their trading in reaction to world events doesn’t lead most of them to do better than sticking money in an index fund that tracks the stock market. Mutual fund managers don’t do much better .

If you need money soon that you have invested — say, for a down payment or college tuition — this is probably a scary moment, and selling might make sense. But if you are frightened, remember the feeling. Going forward, perhaps any money you might need quickly should not be in the stock market at all.

Much of the money you have in stocks is probably for retirement. Chances are, you won’t need it for many years or even decades.

While it would be a neat trick to move all of your money to cash when the market is falling and then buy stocks again when the stock market has bottomed out, the bottom is often the time when investors are most scared. Most people can’t call a stock market bottom in the first place, let alone get up enough courage to bet all of their cash on that call.

Still, rational thinking often eludes us in moments like this, and fear is nothing to be ashamed of. Here are a few things that may make you feel a little better.

First, consider the early days of the pandemic, when stocks fell by more than a quarter in the space of a month or so. Who would have thought that within a year, market gains off the bottom of the market would wipe out those losses and then some? But that’s what happened.

Now, consider other future facts that remain elusive: We don’t know who will be the next president of the United States, or what kind of hurricane season it will be. Try, if at all possible, to revel in the wonders of an unpredictable world and consider the possibility that good news can happen and the markets can react accordingly, even if we can’t predict most of it.

Second, look at the performance of your investment portfolio over the last year or three or 10. Chances are, you’ve made a lot of money if you’ve invested regularly and then left things alone. Nice going! Try to think about those enormous gains and not any smaller paper losses from today’s drop.

Now, consider what would have happened if you’d sold all your stocks in 2020 when the pandemic was at its scariest. The S&P 500 has more than doubled since then.

Finally, and as ever, you are not the stock market. If you have, say, one-third of your savings in cash, bonds or real estate, your overall paper losses in your investment portfolio are less than whatever Monday’s stock market losses end up being. Cash, after all, did not melt down.

Moreover, you are the sum of many large parts, including home equity and future salary, not to mention the immeasurably high returns that come from friends and family and playing outside and taking in art.

Go fly a kite or wander among beautiful buildings and check in with the market again tomorrow.

Nvidia tumbles after reports of a chip delay.

Nvidia shares tumbled more than 10 percent in early trading on Monday after reports that the company would delay shipments of its newest artificial intelligence chip, but the stock later rebounded as investors’ concerns about the costs of the delay faded.

The Information, a tech news outlet, reported on Friday that Nvidia would be shipping its latest graphics processing unit, or GPU, which make it possible to create A.I. systems, three months later than planned. Nvidia said in a statement that production for the chip, which is called Blackwell, was on track for later this year and added that customer orders and interest were high.

Stacy Rasgon, an analyst with Bernstein who follows Nvidia, said there was no need to panic because cloud computing companies such as Microsoft and Amazon were continuing to increase their spending on A.I. data centers. That expansion means that Nvidia chips will be in demand, he said.

“Nvidia’s competitive window is so large right now that we don’t think a three-month delay will cause significant share shifts,” Mr. Rasgon said.

Nvidia has been one of the hottest stocks in technology, fueled by the frenzy over A.I. The company’s market value has increased to $2.43 trillion from $1 trillion a year ago, making it more valuable than Alphabet and Amazon. But its rise has been marked by volatility, as investors waffle between enthusiasm and skepticism about the potential for A.I. to generate new business.

Productivity gains were robust, corporate profits continued to grow and overall economic growth clocked in at a better-than-expected 2.8% annual rate last quarter. And yet that’s the very nature of turning points, whenever they occur, the last bits of backward-looking data tend to look bright.

T here have been some warning signs – an increase in delinquencies among lower-income households and a steadily rising unemployment throughout the year. And yet, as Lydia points out, the most recent snapshots of the economy have been good, great even.

Traders wonder if the Fed could make an emergency rate cut as markets tumble.

As turmoil swept through global financial markets on Monday, fueled by concerns that the economy is headed for a hard landing, investors began to speculate that the Federal Reserve could jump in to cushion the fallout with an emergency interest rate cut.

But a market sell-off is unlikely to prod the Fed to lower rates before its Sept. 18 meeting, especially at a time when economic data have yet to show conclusively that the economy is entering a recession.

The latest jobs report does leave officials with worrying evidence that the job market is slowing. But it was just one month of data, and it came at a time when consumer spending is holding up. Given that — and given how high the bar is for the Fed to cut rates outside of regularly scheduled meetings — Fed officials and careful Fed watchers suggested that the jump in unemployment and the sell-off in stocks were unlikely to be enough to spur an emergency inter-meeting move.

“We’ve got to be monitoring the real side of the economy: There’s nothing in the Fed’s mandate that’s about making sure the stock market is comfortable,” Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said in an interview on Monday afternoon.

The Fed calls unscheduled meetings to adjust interest its policy stance only in extreme situations. The most recent instance happened on March 15, 2020, when central bankers slashed borrowing costs to near zero as the onset of the coronavirus pandemic sent panic coursing across global markets and caused a widespread breakdown in how markets functioned.

Monday’s sell-off was far less drastic than that moment. Investors dumped stocks because they have become nervous that the economy might fall into a recession after a few weak economic data releases in the United States, including a jobs report last Friday that showed unemployment rising. But even as they sank, markets continued to trade in an orderly fashion.

Still, the sell-off was a symptom of a problem that Fed officials are watching cautiously. Joblessness rarely rises sharply outside of an economic downturn, making last week’s employment report concerning.

The data have fueled serious concerns that Fed officials have fallen behind on adjusting their policy stance. Central bankers have held interest rates at 5.3 percent for a full year, a relatively high setting that is making it expensive to borrow to buy a home or expand a business. The risk is that Fed policymakers might have choked off demand too much for too long, causing a slowdown in the labor market that will begin to snowball into wider economic pain.

“We’ve now confirmed that the labor market is slowing, and it’s extremely important that we not let it slow so much that it tips itself into a downturn,” Mary C. Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said on Monday evening. She added that it was not yet clear just how serious the labor market slowdown would prove.

While a rate cut at the Fed’s September meeting was widely expected even before the employment report last week, traders now see a large reduction of half a percentage point or more — bigger than the quarter-point moves that the Fed tends to announce during normal times.

“People always ask how much — is it 25, is it 50, is it three meetings in a row, is it every other meeting?” Ms. Daly said. The Fed’s policy-setting committee is “prepared to do what the economy needs when we are clear what that is,” she said, “and there’s many more pieces of information that come out between now and when we next meet, and we’ll use all of that information.”

Her comment was important for two reasons: It made it clear that a larger-than-normal rate increase is possible next month. But it also threw cold water on the idea that the Fed might cut interest rates before its scheduled meeting, as some investors guessed on Monday that it might.

Several longtime Fed watchers pointed out that the central bank tends to make emergency moves between meetings only when there is a risk that markets are going to stop functioning properly, not just because stock prices are falling.

“I think what you generally find is that they tend to happen in periods of credit market disruption and financial system freezing up — right now, markets are having not a good day, but I think it’s orderly,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at J.P. Morgan.

Mr. Goolsbee, from the Chicago Fed, said the idea of an inter-meeting rate cut was “outside of” his “wheelhouse,” but also emphasized that the stock market was overreacting to “one data point.”

Mr. Goolsbee also noted that jobs numbers come with a margin of error — the numbers can jump around for quirky reasons, and they get revised — and suggested that it was too early to draw firm conclusions from July’s report.

But both he and a wide array of economists have been watching other data as they begin to show signs that the economy is beginning to weaken.

Jobless claims have moved higher. Manufacturing activity is showing evidence of a cool-down. And while growth and consumer spending have held up so far, those tend to be slow to adjust at the start of economic pullbacks.

Given the mounting evidence that the economy might be on the cusp of softening, there is a risk that it will look in hindsight like the Fed waited too long to begin reducing rates.

Although officials discussed cutting borrowing costs at their meeting last week, they held off, choosing to wait for some final confirming evidence that inflation is fully under control, hopeful that the economy was strong enough for them to take their time.

That timing proved to be unfortunate. In the two days immediately after policymakers made that decision, reports showed a pop in jobless claims and a jump in the unemployment rate. Officials would not have had the employment report in hand as they were making the decision.

“There are no mulligans in monetary policy, unfortunately, but we’ll probably look back and say, yes, they waited too long,” Mr. Feroli said. “In real time, it didn’t seem obvious.”

Here’s some brighter, just-released data: The Institute for Supply Management’s report on services came in at 51.4 percent, indicating that purchasing managers see business expanding, after June’s more downbeat number.

The concerns about the health of the U.S. economy come as it has been a driver of global growth in the last year, regularly outperforming forecasts of economists at the International Monetary Fund. However, the I.M.F. did warn in a brief update to its outlook last month that the U.S. economy was showing some signs of cooling, and it lowered its growth outlook due to weakening in the labor market and softer consumer spending.

While there are strong reasons for the sell-off erupting around the world today, from Japan surprising investors by raising its own interest rates last week to the weak jobs report on Friday, there are also more technical factors at play.

August is a notoriously quiet month for trading, and because there are fewer trades happening, it is easier for markets to be pulled around by big changes in sentiment among those that are still active.

There are also a number of market players that are more systematic in the way they buy and sell stocks, meaning sharp changes in prices can ripple through markets, and even be exacerbated, as algorithms quickly respond.