Assignment Essays: Good or Bad?

Bongcac, Blessy                                                            12 - Blessed de Hoyos

Pacatang, Gilbert Jr.                                

Panes, Januarius Anthony

Assignment Essays: Good or Bad?

        The article entitled "Assignment Essays: Good or Bad?" argues that giving assignment essays is a good strategy to aid students develop subject mastery and improve student's learning. The author elaborates this argument by laying out the advantages and disadvantages of giving out assignment essays as a form of evaluation to student's learning. The purpose is to help readers weigh the pros and cons of assignment essays. Assignment essays help students enhance the mastery of the subject. Yang and Baker (2005) mentioned that in order to become proficient in one's learning materials, writing what one researched is a must. Also with research, students can establish a body of knowledge about the subject's conventions while they are in the process of researching, reading and writing. Moreover, assignment essays utilized as an assessment support student's learning as these course essays lessen stresses encountered by several learners rather than traditional examination processes. Students who experience examinations which require them to memorize and write everything they have learned all at once, they are not offered with equal options as some learners perform at their lowest level during examinations. Setting assignment essays as a significant portion of a student's assessment is more appropriate than a one-off examination since exams only offer students with grades rather than a specific response regarding their learning (Jones et al., 2004). However, assignment essays have some disadvantages. According to Sangey and Liger (2005), it consumes a great deal staff's time and money to mark and students' time to prepare and concludes to delayed feedback from students which is less useful to students than rapid feedback (p. 294). Therefore, assignment essays is advantageous to all in the field of tertiary education because it is effective in development and show students' understanding of the content in a less pressured environment while also in the other hand the time-consuming nature should also be considered. Based on evidences, assignment essays used to assess students, still, is a good approach and is proven to help them attain learning better.