Essay Writing: Does It Matter?

Writing essays is like studying your soul. Have you ever wondered why do teachers and professors give you this bunch of written assignments? Why can’t they ask you all that in an oral form? The answer is quite simple. When you write an essay – you learn to express yourself in a more logical way. Besides, you develop your writing skills, your vocabulary, and your own writing style. And all that is not an oral activity. By writing simple essays, you can grow to be a very talented and creative writer or speaker, logical thinker, or whatever. Writing develops you in many different ways.

Historical Context

When did it all actually start?
According to the existing data, writing has inextricably been linked to exams and tests. In 1845, American educational reformer and Whig politician Horace Mann advocated that every teacher and professor should test students on paper. The first great American advocate of public education insisted that, thus, the testing would be done fairly. In 1874, Harvard had the very first entrance exam in writing. According to the results of the exam, more than half of potential applicants failed it.

If we look further into your education, we will see that in addition to the essays, there are many types of written assignments, which later on, you will need to accomplish and submit. A shortlist of examples includes term papers, articles, case studies, lab reports, book reviews, research papers, course works, home works, dissertations, thesis papers, and many more in different disciplines. All these academic projects require outstanding writing skills, which can be developed only by practicing writing on a regular basis.

The Importance of Referencing and Citation

Another important aspect of writing essays – is referencing and citation. Do you know what is APA and MLA citation/referencing? If not, then you haven’t written an essay in your whole life.

APA (American Psychological Association) and MLA (Modern Language Association) are the two guidebooks that will help you put citation and referencing in your essay. Plagiarism is a very serious academic offense, and if you do not cite all the used sources properly, you will be accused of plagiarism, which can harm and damage your reputation. Citation and referencing plays a very big role in your custom essay. The point is that proper referencing gives you an opportunity to acknowledge the massive contribution of other researchers and writers in your work or field of study. Any type of academic assignment that draws on the research, words, or ideas of other writers must include citations. What is more, properly arranged referencing is also a way to provide credit to the writers, who wrote the pieces that you have borrowed ideas and words from.

You will have to learn to cite all the sources properly. They will definitely be useful for you in the future, as in every written assignment, you are supposed to use a certain style of referencing and citation. It can be either MLA or APA, Harvard, Chicago, Turabian, etc.

In his essay called “Documents,” Charles D’Ambrosio is not just sharing his personal story of hardships and loss of his family, but also brilliantly proves that you, as the author, have an opportunity to also use real quotes from your friends and family. This will not only make a major impact on your family but will also make your essay more relatable and personal.

So, what makes writing such an important part of daily routine?

When you write an essay, you develop your logical thinking in a written form. After you have developed your own style of writing, you inevitably have developed a certain style of thinking and talking. In this particular way, regular essay writing helps you become not only a better writer but a better thinker, as well.

Always make sure to use beautiful language in your academic assignments, such as essays or research papers. The truth is that virtuously built sentences and word combinations tend to stir the imagination. “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is a striking example of a printed work that contains mind-blowing language. “It was a very poor quarter, a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palm-leaf, winding all over a steep hillside. I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains.” Or consider this, “I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have.”

So important to remember the great recommendation from Zadie Smith, the author of the essay “Fail Better.” It actually goes about the fact that you should never try to tell it all. The point is that it is simply impossible to put “all” into language, either in verbal or written communication. Just make sure to take a part of the story and tell it the best way you can. This is one more solid reason why writing essays is important – it teaches you to analyze the story, point out the most important issues, and cut off everything that is unnecessary and pointless in the readers’ eyes. Say it differently, you learn to get the idea, i.e., embrace the essence of the message and translate it with your own words.

Many college and university students believe that writing is something that is entirely based on the inspiration that suddenly kicks in, and you start writing like a pro. Great writers like Harlan Ellison say that the quality that differentiates prominent writers from unsuccessful ones is regular sessions of hard work, not an inborn talent. “People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in the back of the typewriter, and you work, and that’s all there is to it,” says Ellison.