How Sharing Your Work Makes You a Better Writer
Paper's Essay Reviewers have one goal in mind: making students stronger writers. Being experienced tutors from numerous backgrounds (former teachers, experienced literacy tutors, and upper-level English/humanities students are just a part of the demographics of our team), they take their passion for writing and apply it to each and every written assignment that they review. In giving personalized feedback, Essay Reviewers guide students to ultimately make their revisions themselves. The priority is to cultivate each student's writing ability—rather than increasing the student's grade for the one assignment.
So how do they do this?
1. They are more than proofreaders.
Our reviews are holistic; Essay Reviewers are interested in every element of a student's writing. So while they can definitely point out those run-on sentences and dangling modifiers, they also comment on aspects of students' writing such as structure, argumentation, research, and citations.
2. They know there is no such thing as a perfect essay.
Paper's Essay Reviewers will never return a piece of writing to a student free from any suggestions or constructive criticism. Even the most technically sound writer can benefit from Essay Review. Our reviewers engage with a student's ideas and guide them to think in more profound and expansive ways about the topic at hand. This also means that reviewers will never run out of things to say—even if students resubmit their essays after a round (or more!) of edits. Chances are, they will get a different Essay Reviewer each time, so students can benefit from multiple perspectives on their work.
3. They give commentary, not grades.
We want students to get the most out of the feedback they receive from Paper on their essays. This is one reason why Essay Reviewers do not provide students with grades or grading estimates. When students submit their rough drafts to Paper, they are encouraged to focus on improving their writing rather than simply achieving their desired letter grade. That being said, students' increased understanding, confidence, and the achievement of desired grades often go hand-in-hand.
A bigger picture: Why does being a better writer help students?
It's never too early for students to recognize that writing is a process. Though some people (our Essay Reviewers included!) may have once achieved the desired grade for an essay they hammered out in one sitting, for the majority of students, this is not the case.
Rather, students benefit from the process of writing, submitting a draft, receiving personalized feedback, revising, and then submitting their work again. Not only does this help students fix their mistakes before submitting their final draft, but it also serves as a reminder to avoid repeating these mistakes on future writing assignments.
This, paired with the head start students will have as they complete written assignments in the next stage of their academic career—be it middle school, high school, college, or university—has us believing that Paper's Essay Review doesn't just make better writers; it makes better students.
Want to hear more about why students and teachers love Essay Review? Check out: Why Students Love Paper's Essay Review.
