For many students, writing essays are not exactly our number one choice. Unfortunately, writing essays in High School is like the fog in Daly City- it’s inevitable. Writing essays in Science class on the other hand, is like a sunny day quickly covered by fog. It’s somewhat expected, yet still disappointing, and surprising at the same time. We’re most expected to write essays in our English class, so writing an essay in any other subject such as Science makes us hate writing essays even more. In general, writing essays interfere with our personal responsibilities, and our activities outside of school.
The main problem students have with writing essays is not knowing how to manage their time well. Often times, we procrastinate because we choose to do other things instead. Given a 1-2 week time period to complete an essay seems like a lot of time until procrastination takes over. Writer’s block, and distractions are a huge contribution to procrastinating as well. Sometimes you just don’t know where to start when you write an essay, or your ideas and words may not flow together. You’ll try over, and over again but it just doesn’t sound right.
As a result, you become discouraged and leave it to do “later. ” Instead of trying to write your essay, you get distracted by your phone, favorite show, or computer. This easily makes “later” become the night before it’s due, and by then we’re struggling to cram in all of the other homework we have to do still. Nowadays, teacher’s give so much homework. It’s really important that we use our time wisely, or we won’t finish what we need to get done on time. Doing an essay on top of homework can be very time consuming, and sometimes we just don’t have the time.
Some may say, “You have all the time in the World,” but in reality it’s the time you have after school, and how you use that time. Most students in High School have after school activities such as Club meetings, sports, dance, etc. If you have practice 2-3 hours after school, by the time you get home you’ll most likely be too tired and lazy to start, or finish your essay. Having a significant other requires you to dedicate your time to them, depending on how serious your relationship is. Dedicating all your time to our boyfriend, or girlfriend can be a huge distraction when you’re writing an essay. For example, you may be constantly calling, or texting each other which won’t benefit you at the end. By the time you’re done talking to him/her, chances are you’d either say your essay for “later,” or not finish it at all. Maybe you’re not the type to procrastinate, but you have committed to other responsibilities in addition to your school work such as babysitting your little brother, or household chores.
This can make it difficult to complete an essay because you’re trying to do too many things at once. If you pick up your sibling from school, still having to take bus home, you’re not left with a lot of time once you get home to do everything you need to do. Washing the dishes is a common chore done by teenagers everyday which doesn’t exactly take 5-10 minutes to do, especially with a big family. With that being said, the time taken out of when you do your homework can be very crucial. After writing many essays, you’d think it would only get easier, and sometimes it does.
Other times, most times, it only gets harder. Writer’s block can especially discourage students from writing an essay. This leads to distractions, which then turns into procrastination. For some, they might just not have the time due to other responsibilities, or activities. Writing an essay in a Science class doesn’t appeal to many students simply because essays are expected in an English class. What we do expect, and are used to in a Science class are research papers, and worksheets.