The Purpose of an Essay Writing Task

In the UK educational system, specifically, much importance is given to the task of writing an essay. A UK university student’s coursework may be composed of dissertations, essays and other curricular and co-curricular tasks, but the essay is considered the determining factor of a student’s overall mark. In several subject areas, a student’s marks are largely based on the quality of the essays that are passed, especially under examination conditions.

It is important that students are made aware of the purpose of the essay. While most of these students have the perspective that an essay is something that only needs to be passed, the essay plays a more important role in UK education than that aspect alone. If students are able to determine the importance of their essays, they could see the essential properties that make the essays important.

An essay is considered a major evaluative tool by professors in a student’s progress. Therefore, students must be able to clearly show, through writing, what they have learned during their classes. What makes the essay writing task difficult for most students is the fact that they might not be naturally talented when it comes to writing. Unlike rhetoric, however, the essay has several advantages due to the following:

• An essay takes weeks or days to be completed. If a professor assigns students several essay writing assignments, a date has already been given for the deadline. That gives students enough time to do research, practice their writing skills and seek feedback from other more talented colleagues before they pass their final essay copy to their professors. This also gives the students enough time to prepare what they want to include in their essays to make them more effective unlike the spontaneity of rhetoric.

• An essay is not just about writing ability alone. While a greater factor that makes an essay effective is the students’ writing style, this skill can be mastered with practice and skill. An essay is even more effective; however, if all of its aspects are present apart from the students’ writing style. This can be achieved if the student has accomplished the following minor tasks: writing the outline, doing research, preparing the essay draft, revising the essay draft and completing the final essay copy.

• There is an availability of professional services online. If students find their essay writing experience frustrating, they can make use of professional essay writing services online. The services these companies offer may range from editing their essay drafts to creating a custom essay which students can use as their own reference.