How To Make Essay Writing In School Better
I hope my English professors don’t shun me after this
We all know the struggle of high school writing assignments. The teacher hands out that dreaded rubric, full of the guidelines and expectations. There’s a deadline, one for the first draft and final draft. A list of sources are required too.
Sounds miserable, right?
Before I proceed any further, this article isn’t meant to totally destroy the foundation and fundamentals of writing. Research papers, essays, and other academic writings serve a purpose.
For instance, I agree with these aspects of scholarly writing:
- Research Process: develop skills to obtain information and cite it
- Outline: learning the skeleton of a paper, aka the blueprint
- Thesis Statement: without this, you have no paper. You have to refer to this so your paper stays on track
- Reading to Writing Analysis: teaching you to take what you read and find the bigger picture: what’s the message? Utilizing context clues, literary elements, etc
These elements are unavoidable.
Whether or not you want to pursue writing, many of these skills apply to other fields of work, especially the research process. Where I believe students lose interest are a few areas that restrict the writing process.
The best papers, I believe, are the ones that allow freedom of imagination. I’m not saying let people go willy-nilly: leave that for creative writing classes.
Here’s what I mean. There are obviously papers that require you to read a book the teacher assigns. Whether or not you enjoy that book is decided by you, the reader. That being said, English literature is outdated for our time period. We need newer books and authors to provide a fresh new experience (I discuss a similar idea in my recent poetry post).
There are literary classics we shouldn’t remove or censor, like To Kill A Mockingbird. I’ll go to war for why that book is so important in the school system. There are many book selections, however, that need to be updated. Topics that are relevant now need to be discussed in literature classes. How can something from over a century ago inspire the mind of a high school student who is obsessed with their Twitter timeline?
Speaking of topics, we need to revamp research papers. Let students pick their own topics! As long as some guidelines are meet (i.e. need credible sources, has to be appropriate or discussed appropriately, no opinion within the paper), I honestly think teachers will get better results. I’d much rather write a research paper on something I’m passionate about!
Here’s another reality check: word minimums are moronic. If I spend a week on a 1500 word paper, write out a rough draft, proof read, get it critiqued, and make a finished product I’m proud of that is only 1,350, do I deserve a B over someone who procrastinated, cranked it out on a weekend, and wrote 1,501?
The answer is no. Minimum words/pages crams writing freedom into a box. Let’s open that box and let the best writers win. If I can get to a point in 800 words better than you can in 1,000, I deserve the better grade. Sorry to be blunt, but writing is equally as competitive as it is collaborative!
Here’s the summary of what needs to change:
- Newer books discussing more relevant literary ideas, topics, and themes
- Freedom in research assignments
- Removal of word and page limits
People are motivated by deadlines. It’s the reality of the writing industry. If I have to write 1,000 words on a subject I hate, but I’ll lose a job opportunity if I don’t, I’m writing that piece like it’s a novel to be sold for a million copies.
That being said, there’s no reason to not encourage young writers to enjoy the experience. There can be a balance between academic expectations and creative freedom; we just have to find it.
