The Essay Prompt
This morning I opened an essay prompt for a Developmental
(Basic) English class. Even I was overwhelmed with the amount of preliminary
information that the professor provided. It was a single spaced full page of information
that the students are supposed to write a two- to three-page essay about. The prompt
itself was almost the acceptable length of a student essay. Is this normal for
a Basic class? Does the preliminary information help the students compose or
does it send them in a tailspin? At what point is information too much? It
seemed so daunting that I fear most students won’t read it. What is the appropriate
length of an essay prompt? I reviewed the prompt, and I could see the relevance
of the information provided, but I think that the students will not because it
is very dense information. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear I’m not.
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