The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

185 motivated to invest in each one. Writing teachers have the key to solving this problem. Because the problem of motivation dictates how much a student works on their paper, fixing this problem will reflect well on the teacher’s effectiveness, as well as the student’s grades. Teachers can do many things to motivate students—if teachers help students find a topic that they are interested in, allow and mandate that students revise their papers repeatedly, and finally, if teachers give papers a purpose, then students will be motivated. The first step, choosing a relatable topic, is perhaps the easiest to accomplish. While some students in creative writing classes may be able to choose a subject, a writing class usually confines the students to a single idea, and forces each student to write on the same topic. This election means that whether or not the student is interested in igneous rocks, they must write about them. The solution for this is to give the students the task of writing about their own majors, hobbies, or something that means a lot to them. In an article “Learning ‘Schooled Literacy’: The Literate Life Histories of Mainstream Student Readers and Writers,” Rick Evans summarizes the story of how one particular student, Kelly, began her writing career with a craft, in which she made a plate for her parents, as a gift (320). Her affection for her parents motivated her to make the plate, and do the writing. Evans goes on to explain how Kelly was later forced to do writing, when she was forced to write letters to her grandmother (302). The writing was not motivated, because the girl did not want to write to her grandmother. Teachers must allow students to write on whatever topic interests them most—probably something in their major, or their favorite classes or activities. The focus on something that interests the student will motivate them to write about it. Some may suggest that the best way to allow people to write freely would be to teach a creative-writing style. This approach misses the importance of being relevant, however, as the creativity in writing classes does not actually allow for a variety of topic, but requires students to write in a poetic, story-like format. This format, while being easy to read and write, does not have many applications that are relevant to students. In my own life, having taken two creative writing classes, I gained nothing from these classes for writing—they were merely an outlet to express my creativity. The