The Search for Authenticity

[snopes]

A tale circulating among my colleagues at other colleges tells of a student's taking a rather literal approach to these application instructions: "Ask yourself a question and give us the answer." The student wrote: "Do you play the tuba?" The answer: "No." In the anecdote, some of the admissions officers were irritated by the cryptic reply; others praised it as uniquely revealing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227956/site/newsweek/

There was an easy remedy for this type of thing had the instructor thought it through. They could have simply thought it through and required an answer of so many paragraphs or pages, or so many words. I think the instructor was almost asking for this to happen. And no, I do not think it was "smart, sassy or fun" either. Smart-aleck, maybe. What about the students who took time to make a more detailed essay? They probably got nothing for it.