A well-researched essay is a common college requirement, and with the right strategies homeschool students can not only meet, but also exceed instructor expectations.
Parents of homeschoolers can find a plethora of sources on how to cope with custom writing, but very few texts delve into helping students find amazement within the essay writing process. This amazement is the key to not only effective writing, but successful learning during the process.
When a writer sees purpose behind an essay s/he can more effectively organize and compose it. While this may seem like an obvious observation, the reality is that far too often the act of creating an essay gets detached from this sense of purpose due to the artificial context created by the educational setting.
Importance of Essay Writing
Essay writing is by far the most common form of writing. Failure to master the essay will definitely result in struggles in college for the homeschooler since both in-class and at home assignments will be designed around them.
The reason that this form of writing is such an integral part of the college curriculum is that in order to successfully create an essay the student must be able to read, analyze, and develop ideas. In addition, the student must be able to communicate clearly.
Defining the Essay from a New Perspective
The joy of essay writing quickly evaporates when the process is seen as a task unrelated to student interests and life. In addition, if the student sees an essay as simply spitting back information for the sake of grading, the event becomes powerless. The writer is simply waiting for judgment.
Students should be introduced to the essay as a powerful force, an opportunity to impact the world through one’s voice. Any definitions or explanations given to a student should be prefaced with the concept of personal empowerment. An essay is discovery. It is a journey of discovery that leads to amazing possibilities.
Tips for Finding the Joy of Essay Writing
Parents wishing to bring the adventure back into writing and thus help homeschooled students to excel should consider incorporating the following strategies into writing lessons:
- Along with assigning topics for academic writing, encourage students to pursue things that interest them personally.
- Share examples of essays and include contextual information such as who wrote it, why, and what s/he accomplished by writing it.
- Go beyond textbooks to find essays for students to read.
- Parents should write essays on something meaningful to them and make an effort to publish these works. Even if the essay only finds its way to a family website or community publication, the effort is well worth it.
- Help students identify meaningful outlets for their writing and encourage them to send an essay to a publisher.
- Locate a college level essay rubric (most professors are willing to share rubrics and some are already online) and talk to students about what is expected and why. Parents should be creating context and focusing on how this empowers writing rather than on the issue of judgment/grading.
- Parents should read and share favorite essays with their children. The best way to pass along the joy of learning is for parents to exhibit that joy themselves.
As much as possible parents should avoid making the essay appear to be drudgery that is simply a fact of academic life. The more a student discovers and experiences the joy and power of essay writing, the less stressful college life will be for them.
Instill Joy of Writing an Essay
Parents of homeschoolers have an amazing potential to instill in their students the joy of essay writing that will give them a head start when they begin college. Being able to understand not only the structure, but the great potential presented by essay writing enables student to grow in significant ways.
If students can appreciate the opportunity that an essay provides for them to impact their communities, they can then exceed any expectations a professor may have in the classroom. In the long run, an adventurous attitude towards essay writing can lead to a successful and satisfying life.
About the author: Diane H. Wong is a search engine optimization specialist and freelance team manager. Besides, she is a writer at DoMyWriting so she prefers to spend her spare time working out marketing strategies. In this case, she has an opportunity to share her experience with others and keep up with advancing technologies
