Authors
- Kikteva Ksenia Sergeevna Ph.D. in Pedagogy
- Senenko Olesya Vladimirovna Ph.D. in Philology, associate professor
Annotation
Abstract. The article considers an essay as a contemporary type of written work used for midterm and final academic assessment as well as at creativity competitions and entrance exams. The article presents the analysis of adolescents'entrance exam essays. The article is aimed at the study of how the topic and assignment design influence the texts of the essays. The texts have been analysed with the use of the following criteria: ease/difficulty of the topic of the assignment for those who take the exam; relevance/irrelevance of the topic to them and their independence/lack thereof (conformism). Using the consolidation of the aforementioned analysis results, recommendations for the development of such assignments are formulated. The recommendations deal with the subject matter of the essays, with task statements and with the use of quotations and comments from different sources in the task statements. It is grounded that the topics of exam assignments should be close to adolescents' experience; at the same time, too trivial and standard topics should be avoided; the task statements should be clear and specific. The recommendations also define the specifity of the use of quotations in the task statements: a quotation should lead directly to the problem question; the quotation should be, if possible, succinct; what is more, it is more productive to use not just one but two quotations representing two different points of view.
How to link insert
Kikteva, K. S. & Senenko, O. V. (2021). Topics and design of essay assignments: guidelines for developers Bulletin of the Moscow City Pedagogical University. Series "Pedagogy and Psychology", № 3 (57), 165-181. https://doi.org/10.25688/2076-9121.2021.57.3.09
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