3 Reasons Students Love Writing (and why you should be using atomic essays in the classroom)

Image Generated by Wombot Ai (used with permission)

Yesterday, I was assigned a first year writing class last minute. Our first task in the classroom was to talk about what we like about writing.

Students invariably talked about writing about what they love … frequently and to the point, in order to connect to other people.

These are all elements of atomic essays … or short 250 word essays delivered in social environments.

Students don’t like writing long essays.

No surprise there. But they love writing short, frequently, and to the point. Students need to learn to leverage this kind of writing for longer assignments.

Anyone who writes longer pieces, even academics, build their papers and books out of smaller bits … we just call them notes.

Students love writing about topics they care about.

Any writing that is not for a real purpose or audience is empty. No wonder students don’t like writing in academia. Atomic essays give students the chance to explore their areas of interest with an audience in mind.

Even academics write about things they care about … that’s why we are academics!

Students love the challenge of expressing themselves to others.

Students write outside of academia … alot. But it usually about making a connection, not necessarily demonstrating content knowledge. They take pride in their work and experience the joy of sharing what they know.

Why not leverage this and make our writing assignments more atomic and social? Shouldn’t students leave the writing classroom with their love of writing intact?

Students can learn to write in academic environments … or any environments by practicing consistently in social environments. Writing atomic essays is one of the best ways to do this.

That’s the real reason I accepted teaching extra class load. We are going to have a lot of fun testing that theory.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog