Essay Conformity Sucks

 

As a student of a grade twelve 12 English class, I can honestly say that I don’t really like writing essays.

This shouldn’t be surprising though. There are definitely more students who don’t like writing essays than who do.

There are 3 main reasons why I don’t like writing essays:

1. They are boring to write,

2. Their format makes it difficult to be creative,

3. I find them, at times, completely useless.

These reasons all relate to conformity when writing essays. Let me explain.

The reason I find them so boring to write because I feel as though in order to write a proper essay, you must give the teacher what they are looking for.

Students must conform to what the teacher wants from their essay, and shouldn’t write necessarily about what interests them. Boredom hits students when they must write about something that they have little interest in.

Teachers always say that they seek creativity in the essays of their students. That’s a difficult thing to ask for.

We all know the classic 5 paragraph essay structure by now. How is it possible to fit any creativity into it when there is a such a format to conform to? It’s so limiting! One of the most difficult parts of writing an essay is adding creativity to something that should be strict, clear, and cover solely the points regarding your thesis.

Now here is why, at times, I find essay-writing useless:

Before we even start writing we know what the teacher wants and which format must be used to call our written work ‘an essay’. So what’s the point? If all we’re doing is trying to satisfy the teacher’s opinion on what makes a good essay, what do we learn? Every year we have a new teacher and new objectivity to conform to.

In day-to-day life we don’t conform our use of language to any objectivity. We don’t speak through introduction and concluding paragraphs. Indented phrases don’t fall from our lips. There isn’t a format we conform our words to. We don’t spit essays out of our mouths as we talk.

Please don’t forget that these are simply my reasons for why I don’t like writing essays. However I must clarify that just because I, one of 7 billion people in this world, doesn’t like them doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be taught. We learn how to be clear with our words and how to respect  language formality through learning how to write essays. These things are necessary to know, and we will definitely encounter them in post-secondary education, the workforce and in life.

Remember: there is always something to learn from things we like, and especially from things that we don’t like. Make sure to think about what you are learning when you are doing something, whether you like it or not.

Stay learning, pals. Peace out.