Question

Discuss why assignment essays are common

assessment tasks in undergraduate tertiary
coursework, and evaluate the effectiveness of
assignments as an avenue for learning.
Possible Answer
Assignment essays are developed from set questions that
give students a period of time to research a topic and
produce their answer with references to their sources of
information. While there are some disadvantages with
using assignment essays as an assessment tool, there are
sound educational purposes underpinning this practice.
This essay examines the reasons why assignment essays are
beneficial for student learning and considers some of the
problems with this method of assessment.
Firstly, essay questions assess higher-order or critical
thinking skills, by challenging students to create a response
rather than to simply select a response. In other words,
essay writing requires the ability to construct an answer
rather than select a solution from a limited set of
possibilities. It therefore encourages original and creative
thinking and allows for individuality of expression. Jacobs
& Chase (2002) note that essay questions provide an
effective way of assessing complex learning outcomes by
assessing a students ability to make judgements that are
well thought through and that are justifiable. They also
assess a students ability to reason analyse and evaluate by
requiring systematic and in-depth thinking.
Secondly, assignment essay tasks are set to assist students
to develop mastery of their study subject. Yang and Baker
(2005, p.1) reason that "to master your learning materials
and extend your understandings, you need to write about
the meanings you gain from your research". Essays
therefore reflect the depth of student learning, by requiring
the student to demonstrate understanding and grasp of the
material involved.
Thirdly, written communication is a life competency that is
required for effective performance in many vocations.
Research by Janx (2004) clearly demonstrates that students
learn the writing conventions of a subject area while they
are researching, reading and writing in their discipline. This
activity helps them to "crack the code" of the discipline
(Jones et al., 2003, p. 44). Furthermore, essay questions
challenge students to organise and express ideas and
solutions in their own words, thereby giving them a chance

to practice written communication skills that will be helpful

to them in future vocational responsibilities. Thus, students
are not only learning subject matter, but how to write in
that disciplinary area by researching and writing
assignment essays.
A further advantage of setting essay assignments, rather
than examinations, relates to student well-being. According
to Janx (2004), using assignment essays for assessment
supports student learning better than the traditional
examination system. He considers that course-work
assignment essays can lessen the extreme stress
experienced by some students over 'sudden-death' end of
semester examinations. We are not giving all our students
equal opportunities if we insist they write everything they
have learned in an examination setting. While some
students excel under pressure others suffer exam nerves
and perform at the lowest level of their capabilities(Janx,
2004, p.11). Therefore, for many students, setting
assignment essays for a substantial part of student
assessment may be a much fairer approach than one-off
examination testing.
Another advantage of assignment essays over examinations
relates to student feedback. It has been noted by Clinton
(1999), that assignment essays can be used to assess
student learning mid-course, and so provide learners with
helpful feedback. In addition, since examinations only
provide students with a mark rather than specific feedback
on their progress Coffman (2007) questions the usefulness
of stressful examinations to both student well-being and to
student learning.
Finally, some research seems to indicate that students are
more thorough in their preparation for writing assignment
essay questions than in their preparation for objective
examinations containing multiple-choice or matching
questions (Janx, 2004). Crook (2008) observes that
because essay questions are usually weighted heavily in
university courses, students tend to spend more time
preparing and researching than they do for multiple choice
questions, and consequently the learning experience is
more in-depth and therefore more effective.
On the other hand, as an assessment tool, assignment
essays do have some disadvantages for lecturers and
students. It has been found that assignment essays consume
a great deal of staff time and money to mark and student
time to prepare (Sankey & Liger, 2003). A consequence of
this is that feedback to students is frequently delayed, and
this is much less useful to students than rapid feedback. It is
partly because of these disadvantages of time and expense

that other assessments such as multiple-choice tests and

short answer questions have an enduring place in the
tertiary learning environment. In addition, due to the time
it takes for students to respond to essay questions and for
graders to mark those essays, only a limited number of
essay questions can be included in a unit of study (Payne,
2009). This means that assessment based on essay-writing
necessarily is restricted regarding the amount of the
syllabus that is covered directly. There may remain large
untested tracts of syllabus. Thus, essay questions
necessitate testing a limited sample of the subject matter,
thereby reducing content validity. For example, a test of 80
multiple choice questions would most likely cover a wider
range of content than a test of 3-4 essay questions.
A further disadvantage is that essays are demonstrably the
form of assessment where the dangers of subjective
marking are greatest. Essay-marking exercises at
workshops on assessment show marked differences
between the mark or grade that different assessors award
the same essay - even when equipped with clear sets of
assessment criteria (Haladyna, 2007). His research found
that essay questions are likely to be marked less reliably
than other types of test questions, as different markers may
vary in their grading of the same or similar responses.
Grading consistency can depend on many factors, therefore
essay answers of similar quality may receive notably
different scores. Haladyna (2007, p.42) found that gender
and ethnic bias, the length and legibility of the response,
and the personal preferences of the grader with regards to
the content and structure of the response are some of the
factors that can lead to unreliable grading.
Another disadvantage of essay questions relates to students
who have marginal writing skills, especially those whose
first language is not English. Clinton (1999) observes that
the focus on written communication skills required when
essay writing, may seriously disadvantage students who are
knowledgeable in the subject area and know the subjectmatter being assessed, but have poor writing ability.
Furthermore, because essay-writing is very much an art in
itself, students from some backgrounds are disadvantaged
regarding essay-writing skills, as they have simply never
been coached in how to write essays well.
To conclude, it seems that assignment essays continue to
have a prominent role in tertiary education as an
assessment tool. This is mainly because they are very
effective in developing knowledge and writing skills for
subject areas. Also, assignment essays can be less stressful

than examinations as they allow students to show their

understanding of content in less pressured circumstances.
On the other hand, the time-consuming nature of writing
and marking essays, and the possibility of subjective
marking, points to some disadvantages that also need to be
considered. The weight of evidence, however, supports the
writing of assignment essays for student assessment
because this approach has such positive and proven effects
for improved student learning.

Reference List
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Coffman, W.E. (2007). Essay Examinations. London: Pearson
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Haladyna, T.M. (2007). Writing Test Items to Evaluate Higher
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Effectively: A Guide for Faculty. Educational Issues
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Janx, J.M. (2004). Student essay writing. Journal of Research in
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