Is this a good opening paragraph for ACT essay?

WasatchWriter
Tue, 06 May 2014 20:24:29 +0000

Either you’ve misunderstood the question or your answer is silly. You refer to this: “person’s current motivation and integrity, her current willingness to tackle challenges and to push back her own limits” and “current willingness to work hard.”

If I am to contrast that to “experience and achievements,” then what I picture is a person sitting on a couch saying, “Yup, I’m willing. Bring on the work. I’m watching the TV now, but as soon as I see some work that needs doing, well, I’m going to do it.” Is that really what you mean? That the best indicator of future success is a person’s plans?

Or do you intend for me to imagine a person whose “willingness to tackle challenges” has already been demonstrated by a pattern of tackling hard challenges? If that’s the case, then you are not describing potential at all; you are describing a person with actual experience. (Perhaps the contrast you are drawing is actually between the long-term past and the recent past? As in, “We should judge a person based on their most recent accomplishments” ?

Either way, I really can’t tell which kind of person the introduction refers to. In short, you really need to clarify your terms.