<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Which essay format is better - fleshing out two examples in great detail or doing a more "compact" essay with three examples? They both fill up nearly all the paper. I'm not sure which one to choose. Here's an example of what it looks like when I use 3 examples:</p>
<p>and here's the essay I did today with only 2 examples:</p>
<p>Prompt:</p>
<p>"'Tough challenges reveal our strengths and weaknesses." This statement is certainly true; adversity helps us discover who we are. Hardships can often lead us to examine who we are and to question what is important in life. In fact, people who have experienced seriously adverse events frequently report that they were positively changed by their negative experiences."</p>
<p>Assignment:</p>
<p>"Do you think that ease does not challenge us and that we need adversity to help us discover who we are?"</p>
<p>Essay:</p>
<p>"Adversity is essential if we wish to truly understand ourselves. Controversial though it sounds, "the hard life" presents a completely different set of problems and challenges to those found when leaving an easy existence. Solving these problems and challenges often leads to greater understanding of oneself than ever before. Several examples from history and literature demonstrate this.</p>
<p>For example, in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Sam Gamgee starts off as a simple farmer's son. He is used to working the fields, walking around the Shire, and nothing remotely dangerous or stressful. He is also restless to explore and thinks that a life of adventure would suit him best - so much so that he joins Frodo on the latter's dangerous journey to find the One Ring. On the way, however, Sam is faced with many perils and dangers. Gandalf dies. Boromir turns evil. Frodo appears dead. At the last, Sam is first unsure of what to do. But then, in a gesture totally unreminiscent of himself before the journey, he takes Frodo's things, bids the latter farewell, and resolves to finish the quest alone. Shortly afterwards, when Orcs take Frodo and state that he's not dead, Sam follows them into danger in order to rescue Frodo. Later in the story, he even tries to persuade Frodo to destroy the Ring when Frodo is tempted to keep it. Clearly, Sam now understands that he is much more than the simple farmer's boy he thought he was. But without facing all the trials and adversity he had beforehand, it's unlikely that he would've known he had the courage to try and stop Frodo taking the Ring for himself.</p>
<p>Or take the Battle of Thermopylae in the second Persian invasion of Greece. One one side, led by Leonidas the Spartan king, were the Spartans and their allied tribes; on the other, Xerxes of Persia. The former had an army of no more than 8000, while the latter had some 250,000 troops. Yet, for two days, Xerxes was unable to penetrate Leonidas' attempt to stop him from going any further into Greece. The reason for this was simple: the Spartans were extremely used to adversity - Spartan boys were made to join the army at 7 and be as active as possible - Spartan men were punished severly for even just throwing their shield - when one young Spartan returned scared to his mother after fleeing battle, she whipped him and made him run up and down the streets yelling his inferiority. This tough society bred 300 Spartans that fought at Thermopylae. When most of the other troops retreated, they and about 400 other allies decided to stay in a heroic last stand. And Xerxes' army was reduced by about 10,000. If the Spartans hadn't been challenged so much, they wouldn've have known their battle strengths and weaknesses - which enabled them to maximise their damage done - or that they wanted to stay when nearly everyone else was retreating.</p>
<p>In short, adversity is indeed necessary. No-one can understand their deepest motives and desires - what makes them tick - without first experiencing a little adversity. What doesn't kill you not only makes you stronger, but also more self-aware."</p>
<p>So which format do you think I should adopt - 3 short, succinct examples or 2 long ones? I'm holding out for the former, as I think it's more concise, easy-to-read, and to the point, but I'd like someone else's opinion on this.</p>
<p>Thanks ^^.</p>