Why is Essay Writing Seen as a Pointless Activity?
What does a student gain from writing an essay? This issue is increasingly being considered today by both students and teachers. After all, students of various specialties, regardless of their future profession, write essays regularly. During the first year of study, not many people think about this question. But by the end of the training, almost every student understands that the essay is just a component of the curriculum. It must be performed, regardless of whether it contributes to the development of any knowledge and skills or not.
And to some extent, this is true. Today, essay writing is increasingly viewed by experts as a meaningless activity. It is easier to pay to have your essay written than to spend time completing an assignment on your own. Thanks to the efficient work of an online company AffordablePapers.com, selling completed papers for cheap, today everyone feels free to find someone to do his task!
Read on for more details on why essays are increasingly considered pointless.
The Benefits of Essay Writing
In the process of completing the written assignment, the student tries to demonstrate his own position regarding the problem under consideration as clearly as possible. In this regard, the stated thoughts are systematized. Arguments are distributed according to their importance. The student rereads the paper in order to create the best-structured text as a result. Thus, the skill of working with information is certainly being developed, which is gradually acquiring the status of an improved one.
The second reason for writing an essay is due to the fact that the student is actively developing his logical thinking. How does this happen? At school, the pupil needs to perform all sorts of written tasks. Thanks to this, he gets an initial logical understanding of how to write this or that paper. It is undeniable that the demands made at the school do not match those established by the college and university. But nevertheless, entering a higher educational institution, a student already has a good knowledge of how to create an essay.
After graduation, the situation is about the same. The student clearly understands how to work on writing different types of papers and applies in practice a sequential algorithm of actions. His knowledge is quite extensive and valuable. They can be used in a variety of industries and fields of science.
The third argument in favor of writing an essay is due to the fact that in the course of the written work the student selects excellent arguments, finds the best ways to solve the problem, performs all the assigned tasks, which would be difficult to achieve through oral presentations. If theoretical oral lessons more and more involve practical thinking, then the written transmission of data makes it possible to ponder more into it. So, having the opportunity to write an essay, you must definitely use it.
Cons of Essay Writing
The main disadvantage of writing essays, and any other types of papers, is the student’s lack of time, and as a result, lack of motivation to complete such works. Many students, not understanding the meaning of such an activity, perform it poorly. This raises the problem that a student gets a low grade for a written essay. Consequently, in the future, he completely loses motivation and stops writing such papers.
Another disadvantage of writing an essay is that the design requirements are too high. This point cannot quite be attributed to the disadvantages, since it is a problem for the education system as a whole. But even if we argue from a positive position on this issue, then we can say that overestimated requirements give us much more than we assume. While observing such requirements, the student develops special skills and character traits that will be useful to him throughout his life. These are perseverance, discipline, self-determination, etc.
Modern experts in the field of education do not recommend teachers to single out essays among other available alternatives. Of course, this type of writing has its advantages, but it is important also to consider the advantages of other alternatives (blog posts, creative writing, web content, collaborative projects, paragraphs, etc.). Due to the active development of computer technology, there are currently many effective methods that can be used in the education process. Their complete replacement by writing an essay is unacceptable.
Proponents of the idea that essays are a useless activity emphasize that this type of writing promotes the development of procrastination in students. Procrastination is known to be the postponement of important matters until later. Due to the fact that students are regularly asked by teachers to write an essay on a particular topic and do not have enough motivation to work, they often postpone the task until later, thus developing such a negative trait as procrastination.
An important aspect, which can also be attributed to the disadvantages of writing an essay, is that this assignment creates a certain pressure on students. Receiving it from the teacher, the student understands that the work needs to be written with high quality, it is important to comply with all the established requirements, the structure of the paper, etc. But a young person does not always know how to achieve this and feels the excitement about this. As a result, essay writing can cause anxiety and distress. But, according to recent studies, the level of anxiety in the student environment is already significantly increased today and one should strive to reduce it but not increase it.
In conclusion, we should note that it is indeed possible to find the reasons why writing an essay is considered a pointless activity today. There are a number of other alternative methods that can be applied in teaching more successfully and effectively prepare the student for modern life. It is even worth remembering discussions as a type of student work. They allow learning how to correctly express own opinion, give weighty arguments, and respect the opposite point of view.
If you need to write an essay, you can complete this assignment, but do not forget that you will not always benefit from it. Therefore, maybe is it better to seek help from professional writers?