John C. Bean in Engaging Ideas states that writing assignments can help students exhibit their mastery of the material, synthesize the course material, and better understand the goals and direction of the overall course, thus increasing overall retention and understanding of the material.  He states that, “Essay exams send the important pedagogical message that mastering a field means joining its discourse, that is, demonstrating one’s ability to mount effective arguments in response to disciplinary problems.”

In order to improve how essays are used in the classroom, students need to be taught how to write essay exams.  Provide students with copies of essays from previous years’ classes, without any instructor comments. Have the students rank the essays from best to worst, and ask the class to list which factors they think distinguish an A paper from a B, C, and so on.  After that, explain your grading criteria and discuss them with the class. In that way, students are more likely to internalize these criteria and apply them to their own work.  Allowing students to assess previous writing assignments could also be used in conjunction with a PTA-designed rubric (see Grading Writing Assignments for more information).  Having students work with the rubric to assess another student’s work will help them understand the assignment requirements and hopefully aid them in their own writing of the assignment. Other ideas for teaching students how to write essay exams include allowing students to practice writing cogent thesis statements in groups settings, thus gaining insight and guidance from other students, and allowing students to revise an essay, so that they receive guidance and learn strategies for future writing assignments.

Another method for increasing the processing of information through the design of in-class essays is including time for pre-writing and synthesis before the essay is given. Some ways to achieve this include providing students with a list of all the potential essay questions before the day of the exam, requiring that students create and bring to the exam a crib sheet for each essay question, which they can use to answer the essay questions, or assigning take-home essay exams.  All of these methods will allow students time for deeper critical thinking and organization of their arguments.
           
Resources:
Bean, J.C.  (1996).  Engaging Ideas.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.