There has been a new app that helps university students formulate
essays to the standards which professors are looking for in a paper. There has
been a gap between high school essay writing and that of academic writing in
higher education. I can personally attest to this concern, when I first started
my undergraduate degree the differences between what I learnt in high school
and what was required in university was drastically different, I struggled
greatly in my first year of university. It was noted that many professors think
students lacked critical engagement with their paper; professors want an argument
or something within the paper to develop logically. Students need to be able to
convince professors when writing an essay.
However, it seemed that there wasn’t much critical discourse in essay
papers; rather students were simply summarizing topics and themes discussed
without much debate.
It was quite concerning to hear on the radio today that a
tenured professor was not surprised with the prevalence of university students
not being able to write a proper essay. Some 60 % of all university students
have to write some form of argumentative essay and apparently there are vast
amounts of evidence which suggest students are ill equipped in doing so. The proposed
app (essayjack.com) provides a framework for students to write essays, the app
provides tips and prompts that guides students through the different features
of an academic essay.
The university of Ottawa M.Ed. program has an extended
course which focuses on academic writing; the course had a component which is
setup as a writing workshop to help students improved their academic writing as
the moved through the program. Should all
universities have a preparation or writing workshop/course for newly entering
undergraduate students or master’s students entering a new field of study? Does
anyone disagree that there is a gap between high school essay writing and university
essay writing? If you do what are some possible solution? Is an app like “Essayjack”
a good idea or does it take away from critical thought and places emphasis on simply
typing things into a template?
References:
CBC Radio 1, Ottawa Morning “essay app”, February 29, 2016
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2684557204
No comments:
Post a Comment