Pros and Cons of Writing Essays in College
The attitude towards essay writing differs from student to student. Some find pleasure in getting a chance to express their ideas and show off their writing style. Others find it tedious and tend to look for online homework help to get the essay written by professionals. But why can writing essays be so tricky at times?
Here are the main criteria for essay grading:
Content
Structure
Logic
Style
Conventions
Understanding them may help those who find writing assignments boring and irritating accomplish them on their own. But those who love and hate essay writing can’t seem to understand each other. It would be fair to say that the latter doesn’t understand the benefits of essay writing, while the former have difficulties figuring out the disadvantages. So, let’s check out the pros and cons of writing essays without any further ado.
Pros
Let’s start with the advantages first. Essay writing is essential for your mental capabilities. But if that sounds too obscure, essay writing has a long-lasting impact on several aspects of your life. To be more precise, your career will benefit if you are good at essay writing. But one thing at a time.
Develops Cognitive Abilities
While it may seem that writing an essay is just about rewriting texts, it requires analyzing the material. You can write essays on various subjects, which means that each time you need to delve into the material. And that’s not simple fact listing. You learn the acquired information, analyze it, and evaluate it critically.
It’s true that not all knowledge acquired from writing tasks can be applied for practical use. But essay writing has another important aspect to it. It teaches you how to deal with the information. Tons of information. And there are various positions you can choose for a prospective career that requires analyzing and evaluating information critically. And given that we’re living in the post-truth era, your cognitive abilities are essential for figuring out what’s what.
Tests Your Knowledge
Education-wise, writing essays is just another way to test your knowledge. Yes, there are various other ways to test your knowledge, like answering during classes and passing exams. But, in many ways, it’s essay writing that truly shows your knowledge of the subject. It’s impossible to get an A grader without delving into the issue, which requires doing a little research.
You need to operate the facts to prove a particular viewpoint. But your paper is not a bullet-point list of facts. After all, an essay shows your knowledge of the subject and not just general information. So, you need to find ways to convince the reader by presenting the facts. Thus, a writing assignment displays not only your knowledge of the subject but how well you can operate it.
Develops Logic
One of the main aspects of your essay is being able to logically and convincingly state your point of view. And logic is one of the essential skills in every aspect of your life. It forms the basis of the skill of influencing others. And that’s the quality that is crucial for your future career.
When on the interview, you need to convince a hiring manager that you’re an ideal candidate for the position. You will have to provide facts proving that point and persuade the employer to hire you. Basically, you will do the same when writing an argumentative or persuasive essay.
Cons
Now, after figuring out the main advantages of writing essays, it’s time to talk about the drawbacks. There are not so many of them, and mainly they lie in either the subject or your professor’s attitude. So, let’s have a more detailed look at each of them.
Uninteresting Topics
There are things that we enjoy and things that we couldn’t care less about. Some students would love to dwell on topics like, let’s say, “The irrelevance of the nuclear families in the 21st century.” Others would cherish the idea of writing a lengthy essay on the analysis of the characters in Nabokov’s “Pale Fire.” And some students would love to write about how technology will change our lives for better or worse.
The topic that students find boring will unlikely result in the finest essay. They will write it reluctantly, and it would be obvious. And they don’t have to waste their time and essay-writing skills on subjects that they find irrelevant. Besides, students can’t get the necessary insights and persuasive skills from topics they find dull and uninspiring.
“Correct Point of View”
There is that specific type of professor that is not interested in what the students have to say on this or that subject. There’s a common idea that students need to come to in their writing assignments. In other words, expressing your personal point of view in the essay is not welcome, as there’s a correct one.
Of course, such an attitude is unproductive. Firstly, the advantages of essay writing are completely lost. You can’t test your knowledge or develop logic, as there’s only one correct opinion. The “correct point of view” may lead up to students feeling quite dubious about approaching the task.
Developing students’ writing skills and everything that it can bring requires flexibility. When there’s no place for the student’s individuality, the whole essay-writing experience becomes vile. Thus, essay writing turns into another task students hate.
Final Thoughts
Writing essays can turn out to be essential for your future career, provided that you’re given the freedom to express your point of view on the subject. It enhances your knowledge, develops logic, and improves your research and persuasive skills. Still, every student cannot be great at essay writing. We hope our essay writing pros will guide you to a more fulfilling outlook on your writing process and help you enjoy it a bit more.
