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Motivational questions are among the most relevant for modern teachers. It is not hard for some teachers to motivate their students and engage them in their reading, laboratory works, practice, and research. However, almost all of you would agree that essay writing is among the most challenging areas of study for motivation.
There are no universal hacks, but you might realize there would be no easy way if you decided to be a teacher. However, fortunately, some ideas can be helpful. My honest recommendation is to test some of the ideas below by applying them to your students. Only practice makes sense when you are a teacher.
Explain the need for writing skills
Explain to students that writing skills are vital for many professions and areas of work. No matter what field you choose, the ability to create a thoughtful text makes an employee or a business owner more competitive. Another idea of applying practical writing skills is the ability to become a blogger or a writer. For some students, it could be a very inspiring perspective. Make your students realize how good essays could widen their interests and even help to make new friends.
Digitalize more
Add more digital activities to the process of sourcing and evaluating information. Nowadays, people are used to transforming their daily routines online more than ever. Moreover, it is not only about remote learning (that has its pluses and minuses as well.) Offer more sources that are possible to find on the web. Students are more often motivated to research podcasts, movies, logs, and vlogs than books and databases. Assume this peculiarity when you are deciding on the selection of the topics to offer your students.
Find interesting topics
Ensure the program you are offering to your students is not outdated from the perspective of modern young people. A high-quality essay’s core lies in an exciting topic that is interesting to investigate. Suggest students various options and motivate them to explore more. Tell them something about the program, and if they ask questions, suggest they write an essay on that topic. Another working hack for motivating is to offer students to write about themselves and their experience.
Set up a contest
A classic but very effective way to inspire students to write high-quality essays is to set up a contest. Of course, you will engage them in thoughtful writing by many other methods, but competing makes any process more active and exciting. Depending on the area of study, you can think of prizes and additional bonuses for winners. For example, it could be an excursion to a museum or a concert (you could see tickets on here to get an idea of who is touring currently).
Identify the students’ main motivation
Proceed with clarifying what motivates your students the most by providing various tests and assigning them with particular tasks. As a result, you would not only identify the inner beliefs of your students and understand the best approach to their motivation. In addition, you would have better contact with your students, and it would, in turn, help you to build better teacher-student relationships with them. There are other ways to understand what motivates your students to write thoughtful essays.
Recommend some inspiring literature
As a teacher, you know that the ability to study and remember new information varies depending on each student’s character and temper. That is why some students like reading more than writing. Use this fact your way by engaging students in motivational reading. There are some classic books on writing, such as How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco (full of inspiring ultimate writing hacks), modern blogs, and other reading materials.
Allow students to make mistakes
One vital piece of advice is to allow your students to make mistakes. Your role as a teacher is to teach and explain that failure hides a lesson inside. If your students did not learn from their losses when studying, it would be difficult for them to face future challenges that life could bring. The same goes for writing essays – teach them to make lessons out of their mistakes. Explain to students why failure is natural.
Be open to questions
As a teacher, you need to be ready that students, especially in their first year of study, might hesitate to ask you questions on tasks. Explain to students that asking questions is a perfect way to explore something new and applicable to many areas of life. Make sure your students can ask you anything related to essay writing, sources, rubrics, deadlines, and additional information on the task.
The tips above will help your students understand and love the process of writing essays and master one of the trickiest skills in language communication.
Michael Fowler is a business essay writer.
