I may have just read the worst essay I have ever read submitted by a student—since the beginning of time.
And that occurs in this context: I have been teaching adolescents and young adults to write for 37 years.
Of the tens of thousands of student submissions I have read, of course, this essay cannot really be the worst. But that sort of dramatic overstatement is exactly what brings me to discussing that essay and many just like it submitted recently as we near the end of the semester.
Again, as context, many of these essays have been submitted after more than two months of first-year writing seminar where I have explicitly focused on vivid and engaging openings and closings.
Here is the opening of that essay (lightly edited so readers can focus on what CONTINUE READING: Overstating Nothing: Why Students Often Write their Worst Sentences First (and Last) – radical eyes for equity
