GMAT Essays (AWA)

Topic

"Human nature dictates that every action, no matter how selfless it appears, is inspired by a selfist reason"

My Response
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The issue that every human action is inspired by a selfish reason can be arugued from both sides however in general I think that this is a correct statement

As stated in motivation theory of Human resources, humans are motiviated by different level of needs and hence they exhibit different chracterstics. For example a person whose basic needs like food and shelter are not fulfilled, is likely to look for options to fulfil his/her need for food and shelter. On the other hand if a person has almost all lower level (Basic, Security, Emotional, Intellectual) of needs fulfilled, he is likely to focus his enegy of fulfilling needs of self actualization however his motivation will still be driven by a selfish reason.

Not only individuals who openly claim that they need materialistic benefits in life but also individuals involved in social service or spirituality are driven by their own needs. Individuals involved in social service many a times mention that they feel more fulfilled, more satisfied by engaging in social service hence it is clear their driver is still a selfish desire. Similarily indiviuals engaged in spirituality are many a times inspired by need to meet god or to transcend death or by any such reason however point remains is that they are still motivated by a selfish reason.

There might be some people who are not driven by selfish reasons because they have genuine inspiration of performing action (social service, self less love etc) without expecting anything in return however these people are not many (as we can think about individuals we know).

Hence I think that the statement Human nature dictates that every action, no matter how selfless it appears, is inspired by a selfish reasons is correct.

Not bad, but you need to tweak your approach on this a little. Make sure you back up your points with specific, real world examples. So, rather than "some people are not driven my selfish reasons" you should say something like "Mother Theresa was not driven merely by selfish reasons". Using examples will really strengthen your argument.

Also, your essay is a bit on the short side - your intro in particular. Make sure you restate the issue and include a thesis sentence.

Finally, watch the spelling and grammar.

I'll give you a 3 or 4 on this one.

Thanks Jim for your comments

One follow up question though - If I am not able to think of any real life example for topic given in exam, what will be best option for me?

Thanks a lot

My order of preference is:

1. A real life example
2. A made up (but real sounding) example
3. A general or hypothetical example

Remember that graders only have a couple minutes to spend on every essay. If you make up a person or a company, it's not like they are going to Google it to see if it's real!