Top Reasons Why Essays Discourage Creativity

For a significant part of the students, the essays are torture. Not only is it not so easy to state your thoughts on paper, but also teachers require the student to have a particular opinion about what he has read. It is a bit easier for modern students in this regard: social networks and the Internet often come to the rescue when you need to write an essay. 

In the future, this will become one of your strengths because this skill will undoubtedly come in handy in any business. The experts have put together practical guidelines to help and inspire students to write strong writing. The expert also pointed out the main reasons why students do not like to write essays.

Essays Problems Faced by Students

School-dictated templates and boring themes are not conducive to student creativity. But every student can fix the situation. Students hate writing in literature classes. For example:

1. They do not want to argue why the book Little Women brings up family problems, etc. 
2. They don’t like to describe a painting by Raphael Santi. 
3. They squeeze out all their strength to write an analysis of a work of literature. 

Students sob over the texts and try to find at least five more words, which are not enough to the number specified by the teacher. Why does it happen? We have described the main reasons below.

Logic Instead of Creativity

When students are asked to write an essay, teachers treat this work as a test of knowledge of the subject rather than a disclosure of creative skills. The main thing that the teachers demand and what they pay attention to in the text is cold, no one is interested in the facts, and the logic of constructing paragraphs is certain.

Even an essay-reasoning on a free topic was free only within a given topic. This tradition has been going on since ancient times when it was necessary to demonstrate ideological knowledge. Now ideology, of course, is less, but the essence is the same – the student is expected to reflect with a ready-made conclusion, which is contained in the theme.

What to do? Recognize that writing text isn’t always creative. If you see a topic that many have written about in front of you, and by the time you know the answer, you do not have ideas, then this is not a creative essay. It is possible to show a desire to write in an engaging, beautiful, exciting way if you express your thoughts on a topic that delights and excites you. Therefore, try to find such a topic.

Essays Are Confused With Thinking

In schools, students often write essays. The primary purpose of such essays is to share his thoughts, opinions on a specific topic, and design originally. Teachers teach students to write figuratively, without any enthusiasm, transferring experience from one student to another. In the future, it may come in handy when writing motivation letters, resumes, but the essay should have a zest.

In the English school, essays were introduced gradually. First, according to the new educational program, students will start writing real essays from the third grade in the form of a text for reflection. But there is also a lot of confusion around this genre: many teachers fix what is written, not how. Attempts to teach to think correctly are not successful for every teacher. Sometimes a student is perceived to be such a message as pressure or violence. It is for this reason that there is a dislike for essays.

What to do? The student must freely substantiate his thoughts on the topic that worries them, and the words will flow themselves. Essays are not a field for education. You may disagree a hundred times with the young author’s position, but if the student stops writing the truth to please adults, the classes will lose their meaning. Let the student feel better: it can be brighter, more interesting to say what you want.

Teachers Demand to Start With a Plan

Supposedly, this is the only way thoughts can be structured. This is essentially true, but it should pay attention to the fact that we are all different and not always one method may suit all people. This also applies to the classic plan, which students do not like to draw up so much. For example, suppose a professional writer draws up a plan before starting work and does not deviate from it in the future. In that case, this is considered acceptable since it is convenient for the writer. But most genius writers believe that planning would kill their creativity. The riddle inspired the writers, and they did not know how their text would end until the very last moment.

What to do? For pupils who better perceive information in pictures, it is better to compose a plan in the form of small associations on the topic. Based on such figurative points, you will follow your goals and logically state your thoughts without missing out on anything important. 

There is also a different approach to planning. In schools, very often, students use mind maps. Students do not write words and sentences on such cards but write the symbols that they associate with the theme. The student quickly learns to design it. 

In the center are the drafts – a theme, from which arrows go in all directions, above which the author draws with symbols what he wants to say, further, like branches on a tree, refinement of each thought. Making such maps is more interesting than a banal plan with a list of ideas. With a picture of your future essay in front of you, you can see how your thoughts look in the reader’s eyes.

Teachers Don’t Give Feedback

The student receives an assessment of the work’s content and language design, but this means almost nothing. What should you do differently next time? Why didn’t the teacher like it? If a student made an effort but received a low grade, it may seem to him that the assessment was not the result but his ability. “I’m so unoriginal, I don’t know how to write beautifully,” the student will think.

What to do? Only teacher reviews and readers’ feedback can provide useful information and keep working on yourself. Teachers take the time to describe what the student did and what didn’t compared to his previous work. Formulate what the young author needs to work on. Oral feedback is not an option because the student will suspect that it is easier for the teacher to speak than to write, and this will not add love to work.

Teachers Don’t Teach How to Work With Drafts

Here is a blank sheet of paper and you suddenly have to write something exciting on it. We are often afraid to start writing, then once scrolling the future essay in our head. Students are also constrained by the fear of mistakes – grammatical and syntactic. Therefore, they begin to use simple constructions, and this prevents thoughts from flowing freely. It would be possible to edit the text later by checking the questionable passages. So literacy will improve, and the essay will turn out to be original.

What to do? Learn to write down thoughts on separate sheets and then combine them into text. It is easier to get rid of the fear of a blank slate if you describe what is happening here and now: “I am afraid to start writing medicine on that topic. I sit, looking out the window…” Then you will delete out this introduction, but it will help to start the text. We also recommend using gadgets at the stage of preparing the material.

Boring and Incomprehensible Topics

Many topics that teachers make confuse students and do not arouse interest. Students see the theme “Awakening Spiritual Life,” and the desire to write disappears. Imagine if it were like this: “Can you call every person an egoist?” Easier? Also, teachers do not allow students to be creative and insist on adhering to those that have already been drawn up. 

Therefore, very often, students have to write essays on boring topics. Therefore, if you disagree with the teacher’s choice, show your perseverance and develop a topic with which you run into to work. It will be easier for you to write if you are interested in sharing your thoughts.

Fear of Not Living up to Expectations

We, adults, are always afraid of not being in time for something: being late for classes, not finding a job, not getting married, not giving birth. The student’s fear is much worse than our troubles. The student is afraid of not living up to expectations. It seems to him that the essay is not good enough, that he did not understand the question. Worries about getting a lousy grade and disappointing parents. Afraid to look silly. Students need to drop such patterns and find their writing style. It would also be nice to go to a tutor to develop your writing skills.

Conclusion

It is normal to hate writing essays since teachers may give uninteresting topics. Moreover, students have to cope with such tasks too often. Thus, it becomes boring. However, today you have an opportunity to free yourself from such an assignment. Just ask professionals to help with papers and don’t waste your time.

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