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Understanding the College Essay & How to Improve Student Results
posted by: Cindy Omlin | March 14, 2016, 12:54 AM   

Guest post by Kenneth Waldman

Students frequently find themselves asking why they have to write yet another essay, and educators often forget to remind them about how essential essay writing is to self-development and future success. As a result, they often lose sight of the purpose for the assignment and don’t dedicate enough time to the project. This can be crippling to a new college student.

 Here’s what you need to understand about preparing students for college essays: 

  • The value of proper feedback

Many students never speak up or reach out for answers to their questions. They get a low grade, but do not fully understand why. Teachers should be available to students and make time to explain mistakes so they can improve.

  • The causes of poor reading & writing

In today’s technological era, it’s easy for students to forget about good ole’ fashion books. Because they spend their free time on social media, it becomes natural to include slang terms and poor grammar in their essays. However, these platforms often inhibit proper language skills.

  • The long-term ramifications

High school classes focus on many subjects outside of essay writing. Therefore, many students spend their time focused on areas in which they excel or in extracurricular interests. This puts college professors at a disadvantage when it comes to properly engaging certain students. 

How you can educators help students write better essays? It’s simple:

  • Teach students to edit texts

Students often submit the first or second version of their texts, without trying to change or improve it. Educators should work closely with their students to teach them the art ofpatience. The best way of convincing youths that editing is important is by practicing how to do it.

  • Explain how to select research information

Thanks to the help of the Internet, the research process for teachers and students alike has become both easier - and also more complicated. With a multitude of immediately accessible resources at our fingertips, picking out the best information from such a huge plethora of data can also feel like finding a needle in a haystack. Educators need to show students how to properly outline and browse for qualitative data.

  • Give students safe resources

Educators can help students find the right resources by giving them details of websites that provide reputable academic data. There are tons of useful sources available to teachers and most colleges have some information on their websites. 

Ultimately, students must complete essays in order to prove they understand the subjects they’ve been taught, and to form and communicate their own particular perspectives on any given topic. Using the points listed above as a guide, educators of all subject matter expertise will help students understand why and how to write accomplished academic essays. 

Follow Kenneth on Twitter! 

What do you do to help your students become better writers?
Tell us in the comments below!

Originally posted by Alana at AAE .

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