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Essay Writing is Hard, But We Can Have Fun While Learning!

Writer's picture: Kah Ying ChooKah Ying Choo

Essay Writing: Tracking down "clues" to understand motivation in critical analysis
Essay Writing: Tracking down "clues" to understand motivation in critical analysis

I teach English writing. But I don't like to teach my students to pass or excel in exams. Nor do I do grammar drills. That’s just dry and boring. Instead, my students are challenged to acquire English language skills by applying them to the difficult task of essay writing.


This involves critical thinking — reflecting on what is written to interpret between the lines by analyzing the impact on the reader, the execution of the writing strategies, and the writer’s intent. By extension, critical writing is about determining in depth how well (or not) the writer has done in producing the text and articulating this clearly in writing!


Regardless of your age (I have worked with plenty of adults), essay writing requiring critical thinking can be daunting. It can bring you down on your knees. Sure, you can have AI do the thinking and writing for you. But you will be letting go of the vital aspects of your humanity — grappling with the emotions of fear and anxiety of confronting critical analysis; undergoing the struggle of engaging with the text to come up with your interpretations — right or wrong; and experiencing that "I get it!" moment.


But you will be letting go of the vital aspects of your humanity — grappling with the emotions of fear and anxiety of confronting critical analysis; undergoing the struggle of engaging with the text to come up with your interpretations — right or wrong; and experiencing that "I get it!" moment.

Through our endeavors in class, a student and I have been discovering how fun this essay writing experience can be by putting on some creative lenses:


We are paleontologists finding "bones" that can be pieced together to form a dinosaur or detectives tracking down "clues" to understand the motivation of "perpetrators". In assembling the findings, we are lawyers composing a winning argument — tying main points with supportive evidence in the most logical way — to hammer it home. We must be patient in teasing apart the strands of our complex argument in our writing or risk tangling it up like a ball of wool.


This fun but dogged and rigorous approach is how we tackle any essay with critical thinking — be it an argumentative essay, a critical response to a poem or a book, a scholarship or college applications essay to showcase your uniqueness, or a presentation. 


If you or your child would like to embark on a challenging but FUN journey to stretch your mind and improve your essay writing skills (English), please drop me a note!

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