GMAT Essays (AWA)

"The best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them on how to attain it."

The above quotation states that the best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them on how to attain it. This is a fairly straightforward claim. If one does not know what another person hopes to accomplish, then giving advice may lead to more problems and obstacles that may hamper this person's hopes and dreams. Some will say that the best advice is often critical, and that people may not want to hear it. However, it is my belief that knowing what a person wants can lead to better advice.

First of all, a person is more likely to accept your advice if it is something that they want to hear. For example, imagine an aspiring business school candidate that wants to attend a prestigious MBA program. This person will be more inclined to accept your advice if you lay out a plan to help this person succeed. If you start suggesting to the person that maybe law school would be a better fit, right or wrong, this person is not going to taking your advice too kindly.

Secondly, if you know what a person wants to accomplish ahead of time, you can actually seek out your own expert opinion and begin formulating some truly helpful advice. Imagine an overweight person that is interested in losing some weight, and comes to you for an opinion. Now, you can go ahead and blindly throw out some suggestions without really having an understanding of weight loss, but doing your own research and finding out that a combination of exercise and diet can really work wonders, can result in better advice, and ultimately helping the person more.

In conclusion, the best way to give advice is to know what the potential advice recipient wants to achieve. If the advice is something that the person wants to hear, he or she will probably take it to heart. Knowing what a person wants to do, as opposed to making blind suggestions, can actually be more constructive than what is commonly referred to as constructive criticism.

doggdetroit wrote:"The best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them on how to attain it."

The above quotation states that the best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them on how to attain it. This is a fairly straightforward claim. If one does not know what another person hopes to accomplish, then giving advice may lead to more problems and obstacles that may hamper this person's hopes and dreams. Some will say that the best advice is often critical, and that people may not want to hear it. However, it is my belief that knowing what a person wants can lead to better advice.

First of all, a person is more likely to accept your advice if it is something that they want to hear. For example, imagine an aspiring business school candidate that wants to attend a prestigious MBA program. This person will be more inclined to accept your advice if you lay out a plan to help this person succeed. If you start suggesting to the person that maybe law school would be a better fit, right or wrong, this person is not going to taking your advice too kindly.

Secondly, if you know what a person wants to accomplish ahead of time, you can actually seek out your own expert opinion and begin formulating some truly helpful advice. Imagine an overweight person that is interested in losing some weight, and comes to you for an opinion. Now, you can go ahead and blindly throw out some suggestions without really having an understanding of weight loss, but doing your own research and finding out that a combination of exercise and diet can really work wonders, can result in better advice, and ultimately helping the person more.

In conclusion, the best way to give advice is to know what the potential advice recipient wants to achieve. If the advice is something that the person wants to hear, he or she will probably take it to heart. Knowing what a person wants to do, as opposed to making blind suggestions, can actually be more constructive than what is commonly referred to as constructive criticism.

Again, 5 out of 6 in reasoning. Good work!

The only thing I would change is how you address each point without really restating which point you are addressing. You may want to throw things in there like "The author's assertion that the best way to give advice...." This will keep the reader focused on what specifically you are challenging/criticizing. Otherwise, solid essay.