Essay writing gets a bad rap. People think the art form is stagnant. In fact, some people even reject the notion that essay writing is an art form.
Their prejudice is informed by the fact that most forms of academic writing follow a very specific pattern. If you have ever produced a dissertation or a report, then you know that you have to adhere to a particular structure.
In that regard, one can’t be faulted for presuming that essay writing is stagnant. That being said, this circle of the writing arena actually grows with each passing year.
Yes, the core of most essays remains the same. They all have to follow a particular blueprint.
However, as with most forms of writing, essay writing has seen its fair share of trends, some of which have faded with the passing of time whilst others have found a permanent place in the academic writing fraternity.
If you are looking to take a crack at academic and essay writing in 2019, Legitimateessaywriting presents a few of the trends you should expect to encounter:
1). Creativity
Creativity isn’t necessarily a new concept in the academic writing arena but it has definitely gained more ground in recent months.
Most essays are designed to either report or build upon pre-existing theories and ideas. As such, there is an assumption that creativity has no role to play in the writing of essays.
While that was certainly true years ago, the professors and tutors you meet today will expect you to bring a spark of creativity to your writing. Yes, you are still reporting on pre-existing theories.
But academic writers of today are encouraged to apply a degree of storytelling to their reports. There are ways of injecting new energy into old texts without changing their spirit or meaning. This is the future of academic writing.
2). Software
Technology has invaded academic writing. As with the creative aspect, the involvement of software in essay writing is nothing new. Students the world over have known for quite some time now that it is easier to rely on technology to identify errors and typos than to hire human beings to review and proofread your work.
That being said, the demand for such programs has skyrocketed in recent times. Today, teachers depend heavily on software to look for grammatical errors, cases of plagiarism and spelling mistakes.
Not only has the demand for these programs grown but the market has responded in kind. Today, the internet is saturated with applications designed specifically to help students perfect their essays.
3). Replication
People who keep abreast of changes in academic writing probably remember that some colleges in 2017 had started encouraging their students to replicate old essays.
All good students understand the importance of reading old essays. However, some professors had gone so far as to push students to simply replicate these ancient texts. They did this because they thought it was a more effective method of instilling essay writing skills into their students.
Well, that concept hasn’t exactly died out. In fact, some colleges are encouraging students to not only replicate old essays but to build upon the arguments they present.
It is difficult to determine whether or not this approach has a future. Either way, there are plenty of people that have adopted it.
4). Tone
Essays are, for the most part, very formal pieces of texts. So it might surprise some people to learn that a lot of academic writers have been encouraged to take a more informal approach to their writing.
The objective is probably to make academic essays more accessible and engaging for the lay person. Writers are not necessarily being told to turn academic reports into flimsy entertainment columns.
Rather, the goal is to add a sense of personality and style, to allow each essay to manifest the mindset and attitude of its writer. This bleeds back into the issue of creativity.
5). Categorization
The line between academic and non-academic topics has been destroyed. Students are no longer encouraged to keep their research efforts to particular intellectual fields that a select few consider worthy of exploration.
Rather, today anything goes. Students are free to write about whatever topic catches their fancy. Professors believe that this allows students to apply more creativity to their work.
