Straying too far?

Colleges & Universities University of Southern California
1

<p>So I wanted to write my essay on the first choice:
“USC’s speaker series What Matters to Me and Why asks faculty and staff to reflect on their values, beliefs, and motivations. Presenters talk about choices they have made, difficulties encountered and commitments solidified. Write an essay about an event or experience that helped you learn what is important to you and why it is important.”</p>

<p>But I’m thinking that I could write about the general process that has shaped my “values, beliefs, and motivations”, since that seems like the main theme of the prompt, but it also states that it wants “an” event or experience (so only one), so if I wrote my essay about my general progression, would it be straying too far from the topic?</p>

2

<p>I think you should write about an event or experience, as the prompt requests. By doing this you will be following the directions, and generally, writing about a specific experience makes for a more interesting essay than writing about a “general progression.” You could include some information about your “general progression” in your essay, but I think you will be better off if the main focus of your essay is one event/experience as requested. Just my opinion of course.</p>