<p>Hello,</p>
<p>Should I define a research area and topic, or leave it more general?</p>
<p>If anyone had a chance to review my essay I posted on this site yesterday, I am not sure if it is in the right vein</p>
<p>I think it's good to name an area or two, but you can be as general or as specific as you want to be.</p>
<p>I wrote in my essays that I was interested in "topics involving cytoskeletal dynamics, signal transduction, and protein regulation," which is pretty general for a cell biologist. I don't think you should feel obligated to say "I want to study X facet of Y process using Z technique," but I think it's good to name a few general topics which interest you.</p>