{"id":6254,"date":"2018-07-05T10:02:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T17:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.essaypop.com\/?p=6254"},"modified":"2020-01-18T20:34:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T04:34:42","slug":"why-essaypop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/features\/why-essaypop","title":{"rendered":"Why EssayPop?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Problem &#8211; Students are not being taught how to write <\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has traditional essay writing fallen out of fashion? By \u201ctraditional essay,\u201d we at EssayPop refer to the multiple-paragraph paper that begins with a focused introduction that presents a thesis, followed by several body paragraphs that support the thesis, and a conclusion that sums things up and puts matters into perspective. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The well-known <\/span><b>five-paragraph essay<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is one such paper that falls into this category, but certainly is not the only variation. A three-, six- or even ten-paragraph paper would certainly qualify. \u00a0There are those who suggest that this type of essay writing is a quaint, outdated skill; a held-over practice from a more conventional time. Actually, quite the opposite is true. \u00a0Traditional essay writing is being emphasized more than ever before. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider what is prescribed by the Common Core <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing. \u00a0Students are asked to: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.corestandards.org\/ELA-Literacy\/CCRA\/W\/1\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Write informative\/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. \u00a0(<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.corestandards.org\/ELA-Literacy\/CCRA\/W\/2\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.corestandards.org\/ELA-Literacy\/CCRA\/W\/4\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And take a look at what the Smarter Balanced Performance Task (The writing portion of the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Common Core State Standards-aligned test used in 15 states)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> assesses in its rubrics: \u00a0Both the 4-Point Informative-Explanatory Performance Task and Argumentative Performance Task \u00a0(Grades 6-11) require that <\/span><b>\u201cthe response has a clear and effective organizational structure, creating a sense of unity and completeness. The response is fully sustained, and consistently and purposefully focused.\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0The rubric additionally asks that, <\/span><b>\u201cthe response provides thorough and convincing support\/evidence for the controlling idea and supporting idea(s) that includes the effective use of sources, facts, and details. The response clearly and effectively elaborates ideas, using precise language.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, these summative performance tasks require students to write evidence-based compositions, organized into structured paragraphs in order to demonstrate their language arts competencies. \u00a0In sum, they are being asked to write traditional essays. But are today\u2019s students prepared to produce such writing? Much of the research suggests that they are not. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cold, Hard Facts<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress\u2019s (NAEP) most recent assessment, only about <\/span><b>one-quarter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of students, grades 8 through 12, \u00a0perform at the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proficient<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> level in writing. \u00a0The Atlantic Monthly\u2019s, Peg Tyre, writes that, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">based on the Nation\u2019s Report Card, in 2007, the latest year for which this data is available, <\/span><b>only 1 percent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of all students in the 12th grade nationwide could write a sophisticated, well-\u00adorganized essay.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She goes on to comment that \u201chigh schools are still graduating large numbers of students whose writing skills better equip them to work on farms or in factories than in offices.\u201d Again and again the research reveals that for decades, achievement rates in writing have remained low, a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nd this doesn\u2019t change when students enter college. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Universities are perplexed by newly enrolled students\u2019 inability to craft a basic written argument in their research and analytical essays. \u00a0As<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Soheila Battaglia of Demand Media points out, \u201cEven before students are accepted to universities, they have to be able to write essays as part of their applications. Once accepted, they continue to write essays in courses across the humanities. Essays are assigned by instructors as a method for measuring critical thinking skills, understanding of course material, and writing skills.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But many new college students simply aren\u2019t prepared or able to produce these types of sustained and coherent multiple-paragraph compositions . \u00a0According to Daniel DeVise of the Washington Post, \u201cmore than 80 percent of them have never written a formal five-page paper. Instead, they\u2019ve churned out short essay after short essay after short essay. When asked to develop an idea or argument beyond two or three pages, they look dumbfounded.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take a look at any college or university website and you will find guides for basic essay writing that, more or less, focus on the same things &#8212; a tightly constructed introductory paragraph with an unambiguous thesis statement, several focused body paragraphs that present some sort of evidence that is coherently explained by the writer and a conclusion that revisits the essay\u2019s main points. \u00a0So why aren\u2019t students able to write these kinds of traditional papers?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where Does the Problem Begin?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some say the reason is that students just don\u2019t spend very much time writing in middle school and high school, and when they do, it\u2019s either creative writing, journaling or short expressions of personal opinion. \u00a0The Common Core education standards for ELA were developed, in large part, as a reaction to this, explicitly requiring students to write substantial, evidence-based expository and argumentative essays, not only in their english classes, but their history, science and math classes as well. \u00a0While well-meaning and carefully-constructed, the problem with this new approach is not the standards themselves, but, rather, the fact that teachers don\u2019t necessarily know how to teach them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Natalie Wexler of the Washington Post points out, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the authors of the Common Core<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corestandards.org\/ELA-Literacy\/introduction\/key-design-consideration\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">focused<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">just on the skills that students should have at each grade level, <\/span><b>not on how to impart them<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And few teachers have been trained to teach these writing skills, apparently because educators believe that students will just pick them up through reading. Obviously, most don\u2019t.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, essentially, the \u00a0writing standards are solid; they\u2019re comprehensive and they are what university and business communities are asking for. \u00a0What\u2019s missing are the methodologies and the training to provide teachers with the tools to teach these standards. The<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> teaching<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of essay writing is not explicitly covered in credential programs. \u00a0Some teachers have figured it out on their own, but many have not. And herein lies the problem. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The challenge is that the essay writing process is very complex; it is not easy for the instructor to teach, nor is it simple for the learner to master. \u00a0The textbook companies have given a nod to formal essay-writing instruction, but, really, they are more focused on <\/span><b>reading<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> development and standardized test preparation. \u00a0Sure, they provide end-of-unit essay prompts that they expect teachers will be able to guide their students through. \u00a0But if the teachers don\u2019t have the training to create writing experiences that produce substantive papers, then the cycle of not being prepared to teach the skills and their students not learning how to write to the standards is perpetuated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is this reality that our blog hopes to address. \u00a0We want to ask the hard questions about why students aren\u2019t writing proficiently, and hopefully provide answers and solutions that teachers can use to propel and enhance their practices. \u00a0This blog is a discussion. It is a support group and a resource center. We encourage your feedback, your comments and you\u2019re own posts if you care to share a useful or interesting perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is hoped that through discussion and sharing and discovery, we can find an effective and unified approach to writing instruction that helps all students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-6254\" data-postid=\"6254\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-6254 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Problem &#8211; Students are not being taught how to write Has<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6254"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8923,"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6254\/revisions\/8923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}