Creativity should be used as the only true measure of intelligence - GRE Issue

Question:

Creativity should be used as the only true measure of intelligence.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to addres the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

Essay:
Creativity has always paved the way of life. People are always encouraged to think creatively, think out of the box to provide better and elegant solutions to the most compelling problems faced by people in day to day lives. Without such creative thinking, all the technological developments that made life easy and convenient for us wouldn't exist. As such, I agree that creativity is a measure of intelligence but is not the only true measure. Intelligence of a person is not just defined by creativity

but a variety of factors. Even if a person doesn't provide a novel solution, to even replicate a current solution requires some form of intelligence and expertise. And knowledge is one key factor that contributes to one's intelligence. I believe that creativity and knowledge together can account for the maximum part in measuring the intelligence of a person.

There have been a ton of new inventions in the past decade which has revolutionized the lives of people. One such invention is smartphones. A small hand held device without which people are completely lost. To create such a small device with so many functionalities is definitely a great invention and many leading companies are still working on ways to improve user experience by coming up with novel designs. The person who came up with the idea to create a smart phone is creative but is he intelligent? If the person was not able to make this device in practice, then it would have been just and idea and people come up with ideas many a time but to actually implement a idea portrays true intelligence.

On the other hand, creativity doesn't just imply coming up with new ideas. Artists are creative people. One great example would be Leonardo Da Vinci, an eminent artist of his time, painted many famous portraits such as 'Mona Lisa'. His creativity was revealed in his paintings and the significance that was tied to each of his painting. Moreover, there are many films that are novel in nature but that doesn't show or prove intelligence.

There are people who strongly agree with the prompt and say that creativity is the one that makes the world better and many sophistications would not have reached people if not for creative thinking. I agree with this and hence I say that creativity is one part of intelligence but is not the only part. To measure a

person's intelligence, multiple factors need to be attributed for and together they indicate it.

You discussed this essay from a singular point of view. You focused only on the defense of your position / opinion throughout the essay. You failed to use a compare and contrast format for the discussion. For every positive reason you present, you should be able to find a negative reason within it, or a counterargument. The counterargument is a required part of your discussion presentation. The instruction after all is to:

...be sure to addres the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

If you review your essay, you will see that you failed to include a challenging discussion to your position. The essay lacks clarity because you did not try to challenge your own position. The discussion you presented actually just went around in circles. It did not really establish the strength of your opinion. A position that would have been established if you had analyzed your own position for possible flaws in your reasoning.

You need to remember to use the compare and contrast format the next time you discuss a topic similar to this one. You may be able to use the following format next time:

- Topic sentence
- Reason you support the discussion
- Opposing discussion related to the topic sentence
- Reason why the opposition topic is supported by some
- Explanation why the opposition is incorrect

These content guides should help you write better reasoning paragraphs next time. These should help you get started on developing proper discussion paragraphs for topics such as these.