Why Do Professors Assign Essays with Free Choice Topics?
Nowadays, in the age of the Internet, being assigned a free choice essay can no longer be considered a challenge to a student. Such useful websites like essaygoose.com will offer you hundreds of classic and more original college essay topics. And yours truly will offer insightful tips on completing various assignments, should you check my other posts. But let's’ get back to the question that’s been bothering every student at some point of his or her study, “Why do educators make us choose a topic for an essay instead of always providing one themselves?”
The noblest explanation is that this task is given to you to test and develop your creativity. That is what almost any professor or teacher will tell you. And they won’t be lying, having to come up with an essay topic sometimes turns out to be a real issue solving which requires some additional thinking and resourcefulness. Even if you don’t think of an idea for an essay yourself but use the site I mentioned above, finding it required you to do some browsing. Because of this, you may no longer treat it like another forgettable assignment and go out of your way to complete it in the best way possible.
If, however, just for a moment we remember that professors are also human beings, we will find a couple more probable answers. There were times when my fellow students and I felt like Mr. / Mrs. Whatever had been too occupied with something else to think of a good homework for us. I guess it’s safe to assume this kind of things do happen, resulting in us getting a free choice essay to deal with.
Other times, a professor may simply want to make his/her own life less boring and see what essay topics students will come up with. I mean, I would definitely go insane if I had to read dozens of essays on the same topic. Most of the time, there are not that many interesting ideas you will find in those as students tend to write the most obvious stuff to get over with the task. So, by giving us a great opportunity (I’m sure professors see it that way), they actually try to make a mundane job more entertaining.
Whatever the reason is in your case, it only matters that you manage to complete the task without spending too much time and efforts. Find a solution that is best for you, but still try to make sure your work contains some value. Expressing some unconventional ideas may impress your professor and help you earn a good grade for it, even if your essay writing skills are far from desired. Luckily, there are ways to develop them without taking extensive writing courses. All you need is some good tips, and, hopefully, you found some in this article. If not, do not despair and keep looking!
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