Why Students Need to Write Essays

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“I don’t get why we need to write essays all the time.”

Students say this all the time. It’s so common, they’ll even say it to our maths tutors during a maths tutoring session!

It doesn’t matter when or where the topic of essays comes up, students will go out of their way to say how much they dislike them and how horrible it is that they have to write one. They’ll point out all the problems with the current topic, book, movie, etc. They’ll criticise the entire point of essay writing and how they could be doing something far more valuable or entertaining.

It’s quite astounding that every year almost 100% of students profess their dislike of essay writing, and every year schools hold their ground and continue to give them out. Schools will gladly change other aspects of the curriculum to better tailor to students, but have never changed their requirement that students do essays.

Keep in mind, if schools removed essays from the curriculum this would be celebrated by a majority students, parents and teachers. It would make all their lives much easier and much more harmonious.

To understand this, we have to first understand what an essay actually is and why it’s seen to be so valuable.

Why is essay writing so important?

1. What is an essay

Superficially, an essay is a written piece of work on a selected topic. There are references to points that the author makes during the piece, there’s a standard structure to follow, and it’s a graded piece of work at school and university. It’s usually based on discussing the topic while assessing if it’s true or not.

All of these superficial points are what people focus on and why most don’t like essays.

None of these things are what an essay actually is though. If this was all an essay was, then it wouldn’t be taught in schools.

Here are the three main reasons why essays are still taught in schools and why students should spend more time doing them – not less.

What is an essay?

2. Essays reflect the writer’s ability to think

Even if the topic isn’t exciting, being able to write the essay well is a direct reflection on the writer’s ability to think through the topic. If the writer can do research, problem solve, formulate ideas, and articulate them well, they will produce a high-quality piece of work.

By doing this, the writer is training to think clearly through that topic, but also through other topics. It’s effectively a training event. This is similar to when an athlete is able to run a trail faster due to their improved fitness, they are then able to run other tracks and trails faster too.

The next time the writer completes an essay, they will be able to do more quality research, problem solve to a higher standard, formulate original and creative ideas, and discuss those ideas with clarity and precision.

Writing is editable thought

3. Essays allow the writer to refine their opinions

Having an original opinion on a range of topics is one of the key components of being an individual. Being able to refine and change these opinions is beneficial.

As someone writes an essay, they give themselves the opportunity to lay their thoughts on a topic in front of themselves. They may find that the order they present the topic in is wrong, or that the overall argument is flawed.

They can then edit the content until it’s perfect. This could involve being more accurate with a statistic, or it could involve completely changing your opinion on the topic.

The number of changes is irrelevant and so is the extent of the changes, but it’s important that changes are made. This shows that the writer is able to assess the quality of their own thoughts, critique them, and then produce thoughts that are superior than they could do before.

As we learn, we change our opinions

4. Essays are about the reader

When someone is able to critically think, they are able to express themselves in an individualistic way. This allows them to appear as an original thinker or a one-of-one thought leader.

When writing an essay, the writer must be keenly aware that they are an individual. If they are an individual thinking through the topic, then they must also be aware that readers will be unaware of essay’s arguments.

When presenting original ideas, there’s very little difference between a genius and the insane.

For this reason, essays emphasise the importance of presenting a well-structured and referenced argument. This allows the reader to see the conclusion isn’t formed from schizophrenia. It also allows them to view the references which shows a trail of thought.

A well written essay is a conversation of ideas between the reader and the writer.

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