Essays and Essays, Oh My!
In the article, "The end of the College Essay," Rebecca Schuman takes a stance on eliminating college essays in required courses. She states that oral assessments would be better testing methods and that students are going to plagiarize regardless. I believe that this argument is agreeable to an extent. Rebecca makes valid points, but some of them are not developed thoroughly. One reason Rebecca emphasizes is the fact that oral assessments test students’ knowledge more effectively. It is very hard for a student to fake his or her way through an oral assessment when the teacher is staring them down. This also forces students to actually read the book instead of thinking they can read one page and get away with it. According to Rebecca, the best part of oral assessments is that they are easy for teachers to grade. Another point that Rebecca brings up is that students are going to plagiarize whether you tell them to or not. If every student who ever plagiarized was punished, schools would receive unnecessary attention.
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As a student, I do not enjoy writing essays. They add unneeded stress to my life. Rebecca makes it a point that she thinks oral assessments should replace essays. But, this is not something that I necessarily agree with. In my opinion, oral assessments are more stressful than writing essays. Students are more likely to freeze up under that kind of pressure. So, my solution to this problem would be to have multiple choice quizzes. They are less intimidating and less time-consuming as well. Rebecca also says in the article that students are going to plagiarize regardless. This is not always true. The majority of students know what the consequences are for stealing someone’s work, and they know that these consequences can be pretty severe. Although I do agree with Rebecca’s other points, this one does not stand out to