<p>I have a lot of essays that ask for “Why do you want to pursue engineering?” Should I begin with a personal anecdote or are these essays more straight talk?</p>
<p>There are a number of books (and web sites) about writing effective essays. It would be worth looking into these a bit. To answer your question, if the anecdote is relevant to understanding why you want to pursue engineering then it would be a good opening that can capture the readers interest.</p>