Should You Write Your Own Essays? The Pros And Cons You Must Know!
There is no avoiding it. By the time a student reaches secondary school, and on through college, there will be essays and papers to write — lots of them. And, they will be required in more than just English classes. The question for busy students seems to be this: do they “buckle down” and push through writing all of these essays and papers on their own, or do they get help.
The answer seems to lie with a number of factors that affect student life in general, individual writing skills, and the need to get top scores on assignments that will translate to good grades that colleges and/or future employers will look at.
Here are the pros and cons of writing your own essays.
The Pros
1. You Learn
Here’s the thing about writing. You only get good at it if you write. Writing skills come over time — they are a combination of what you learn in English composition classes and regular practice of what you learn. When you have an instructor who reviews your writing, provides feedback, and helps you correct your errors, you improve over time.
2. You Improve in Time Management
There are always deadlines to meet when essays and papers are assigned. Waiting until the last minute means that what you produce will likely not be as good as those pieces you plan for, especially when research is involved. If you do all of your own writing, over time you will learn to spread out the production, so that you are not pulling an “all-nighter” trying to meet that deadline at the last minute. And the skills you develop in time management can “bleed” over to other parts of your life, too.
3. Good Writing Serves You Later
In this age of technology, emails, and text messaging, it is hard to see how strong formal writing skills will serve you later in life. But they will. And if you decide to become an entrepreneur, you will need to prepare a business plan for potential investors.
The Cons
Students lead busy lives. Many have part-time jobs; many are taking a full college course load, and many are involved in any number of co-curricular activities. These activities are important because they teach skills that are not learned in a classroom — skills in relationship building with diverse populations, leadership, etc. These cannot be discounted, because they will contribute to later success. And those pesky essays and papers can eat up lots of time, as well as result in poor grades if they are not done well. For these reasons, students often choose to get help with their writing assignments, rather than to try to do it all on their own.
Here are the cons of trying to do it all yourself.
1. Missed Deadlines
Trying to meet these deadlines can be a major challenge, if not impossible, given the other responsibilities and activities that are faced. Students may be forced to set priorities, which means some deadlines will be missed, and grades will suffer as a result.
2. Write Essays and Papers that are out of knowledge
When students get into college, they declare major fields of study. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of courses that are known as “general education” — courses that are designed to give students a more generalized education before they really get into that major in their last two years.
So, a computer science major will have to take courses in social sciences, sociology, history, fine arts, etc. — courses totally irrelevant to his chosen field. Spending a lot of time on research and writing in these areas seems a waste of time.
Many students look for other options for essays and papers in these general education courses. They may look for professional paper writer services, that be can be helpful if you’re running out of time. It would be better to contact professional writing services and pay for essays and papers.
3. Plagiarism
When students choose to use a writing service to produce their essays and papers, there is certainly the risk of receiving plagiarized writing. And if students should submit such work as their own, the consequences can be severe, all the way up to expulsion in some institutions. Students must be very careful about the writing services they choose, as well as be mindful to check any received writing for plagiarism, using any number of checkers at their disposal. The problem is, if a piece is found to be plagiarized, the student is not just out the money he paid — he still has nothing to submit.
The other danger is contracting with someone else to do the writer who is not a native speaker of the student’s Language. This happens more often than is imagined when online writing services are used. Students will have to carefully research any writing service they are considering, to ensure that there are native writers who have degrees and solid credentials in academic writing. This can be a bit tough to do, although there are some writing service review sites that can provide insights.
Conclusion
There is great pressure on students to produce writing for a variety of courses they take. Those who are skilled researchers and writers can probably move through these challenges and emerge successfully. Those who struggle, however, may face challenges that they cannot meet. The decision to write one’s own assignments or to get outside help is obviously an individual one, and students need to look at their own circumstances as they weigh the pros and cons.
