Yep. That’s me–the kid in History who rubs his hands together in glee when he is told that there’s going to be a term paper. I’m doing one right now, in fact.
What I find is that they let me understand the topic much better. I can read a book, but unless I write an essay on it, I find it difficult to analyse. For example, Machiavelli’s The Prince is much clearer to me since I wrote an (admittedly short) paper on it last semester. The same happened with Great Expectations.
Most English majors would agree with you. And the notion of learning more from the writing of an essay than, say, a multiple-choice test is at the heart of educational theory about their value. However, should you continue to the graduate level, you may find the writing of essays more challenging and, perhaps, less enjoyable.
As a grad student I’ve had a ball writing essays, ESPECIALLY for classes I don’t care much about. When sort of freed from being an expert on the historiography and material, I find kind of concocting a really nimble or clever thesis and argument a frikking hoot. Near the end of my course work I’d have to take seminars in really odd topics far from my specialty, so I sort of approached it as an excercise in rhetoric-- I’d devise a compelling and fascinating introduction with a couple of improbable touchpoints-- really sort of sexy, glib, too-convenient-to-be-true historical bits or something, sort of “James Burke’s ‘Connections’” relationships, and selectively find the evidence I needed to support this bizarre point or wrap back around to it at the end. And the thing is, unless you flat-out lie about your material, you’re never actually “wrong” and some bit of truth comes out, often something no one noticed: a success in that something epistemologically interesting happens.
Not this English major. I absolutely loathed and dreaded writing analysis papers, especially on T.S. Eliot. Even a simple five-page essay would take me at least twenty hours to put together after reading, re-reading, re-re-reading, looking up supplemental sources, literary criticisms, etc… No thank you. I am SO glad that part of my life is over with.
Then again, I did understand the material far more than I ever wanted to after completing the assignment, so as for its efficacy in educating me, papers were absolutely effective.
This English major isn’t so into it either. I should note I majored in English to focus in creative writing, and if I had to write a personal essay or something, I would be totally into it. If, however, I had to write an essay discussing the effect of the Industrial Revolution on Victorian utopian thinking (and I did two years ago!), well, it wasn’t so much fun. I’ll admit I get satisfaction out of writing a good essay and creating strong arguments, but when I think of the research and having to organize my thoughts, I get a headache.
I too enjoy the siren call of essays. I had a 20 page one for a class a few years ago, and ended up being closer to 30. The prof didn’t mind he said, because it was so well written. Blush
I just never seem to have enough time to polish them as much as I like. Maybe I’m just being nit picky, but I was always working on a deadline that was too short.
I don’t mind doing big long research papers, if they’re over a topic that I got to pick. I especially like to do them on medical topics. Right now I’m doing one on Hansen’s disease (Leprosy), which is interesting, but all the formatting and that nonsense just drives me crazy. International Baccelaureate Extended Essay, I’m looking at you. It’s ridiculous.
Wow…there are others out there. Does anyone else enjoy grammar as disgustingly much as I do?
For both my final and midterm in my Great Books class last semester I was the possible subjects that the essays might be on and allowed to take my notes into class, the only stipulation being that I couldn’t have a pre-written essay. I opted to just skim over the basics and do all my thinking on the fly, and I succeeded both times. It’s that sense of just flying through something like that that thrills me. I especially enjoy it when I am confident of the teacher’s sense of humor and I am able to inject a few wise cracks into my essays.