Gre analytical Writing issue essay Topic 101

GRE Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Topic - 197 
"The past is no predictor of the future." 
GRE AWA Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Sample 
Solution - 197 
Experiences of the past have always made us wiser with respect to various aspects of life. It is 
not necessary that our past will be an exact indication of the future, but the happenings in the 
past do have some bearing on the probable events that might take place in the future. Therefore, 
it may not necessarily be true that the past cannot predict the future accurately, but there may be 
instances when the past has helped us in determining what might happen in the future. 
The future has always intrigued humans to the extent that they have often resorted to utilizing 
crystal ball gazers, horoscopes, tarot-card readers, fortune-tellers etc. for foretelling what the 
future holds for them. The authenticity of such predictions is always questionable, but the past 
can definitely be useful for a vague estimation of what the future holds for us. Studying the past 
has always been used for ascertaining success in the future. Whenever there is a requirement of 
carrying out a particular action, there has been a study of the effectiveness of that action in 
achieving its aim in the past. This study can be used to forecast the results of that particular 
action in the future. This is because there are some occurrences that follow a certain pattern. For 
instance, the meteorological departments of most countries have been able to successfully predict 
the weather in the future by studying the present meteorological data coupled with the effects 
that they have had in the past. Generally, these predictions have been found to be true and this 
has been made possible by studying the data and the results from the past. 
On the other hand, it is not always necessary that studying the past can give an estimate of what 
the future holds. Take for example the future of a business enterprise, which can be predicted to 
quite an extent by studying its profitability in the past. The success of a business in the past may 
not be a definite indication of how it will fare in the future. Nevertheless, the past will be able to 
give a rough estimate of the profits that the business can make in the future. However, the future 
of the business will also depend on various factors like the success of its competitors, the 
variations in the demand for the company's products, changes in technology and the adaptability 
of the company to modify its products to meet the demands of the consumers. For instance, a 
company well known for its photography equipment may not be able to maintain its profits if it 
fails to manufacture cameras that support the latest digital imagery technology. Therefore, in 
such a case, a detailed study of the success of the company in the past will not be able to predict 
its losses in the future as no one will be able to foretell how the company's top management will 
choose to react in a particular situation. 
In conclusion, it has been seen that the past has been able to loosely predict the future in some 
cases. These cases would include events and situations that have been known to recur in a 
particular pattern. However, when seen in the larger perspective, a study of the past cannot 

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include unforeseen events that may occur in the future and affect the results that have been 
predicted. Therefore, it is not necessary that the past will always be able to provide an accurate 
prediction of the future. 

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