Writing essays is a required homework assignment in nearly all humanities-based college classes. Because of this, it is important to know how to write a professional academic essay. Sometimes, it can be difficult to do this alone.
Some people benefit from some help with their assignments, while others prefer to work alone and hope for the best. Below are some of the pros and cons of having someone else help you compose an essay for a homework assignment.
Pros
- Time Saver
By having someone help you with your paper, you will save time in the long-run. While it does take time to find someone to help you, have them read over your work and help you with your mistakes, it would take more time if you have to do all of these things yourself. Even if you worked alone, you might still miss things, just because you are so used to looking at your paper.
- Outside Examples
When someone else helps you to work on a project, you will be able to see an example of what someone else would do in their paper. Having outside examples can be helpful because you can compare your work to the work of others. Do you understand the project guidelines? Are you in line with the rubric’s requirements? Does your essay cover all of the main points? By looking at outside examples of essays done by your classmates, or by a tutor who can look over your rubric with you, you can make sure that the answer to all of these questions is “Yes!”
When using outside examples, you will need to be careful. Outside examples should be used for inspiration, motivation, and general help. However, the text you read in the outside examples should not be copied or paraphrased; this could be considered to be plagiarism.
- Another Point of View
Having another pair of eyes look at your work can help point out mistakes that you may have glossed over. When you write a paper and try to edit it yourself, you are more likely to look over a mistake than someone who is looking over the essay for the first time.
Having someone help you with your assignment can also be helpful because another person may be able to give you ideas that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own. With many critiques, both in fiction and nonfiction works, the reviewer will provide suggestions for change or ask questions to the author about their work. Both of these can motivate a writer to make changes in their work.
- Less Time Researching
If you are working on a group project or working with another person, the research work can be cut in half. By learning to work in a team or with a reviewer, you can learn better time-management and delegation skills. Both of these skills are great for writing essays, general college life, and for life as an employee.
The less time you have to spend researching, the more time you can spend writing your paper and editing it. While it may take some time to delegate the tasks at the beginning of the project, it will save time in the long-run.
Cons
- Pick the Best Helper
Picking someone to help you with your essay can be one of the hardest parts of working with a helper. You need to pick someone who will be of some use to you, rather than just being a distraction. You will need to spend the time picking someone who has the same or higher education level, someone who understands the topic you are writing about, and someone who is reliable.
You will need to take some time at the beginning of your project to pick the right partner. However, if you manage to pick the right partner, your school project should run smoothly. If you pick the wrong partner, then you are likely to waste more time. However, bad partners are more likely to slow you down, rather than to help.
- More Rewriting
Having someone to help you with a project, if you find a helpful partner, is likely to result in notes…a lot of notes. These notes are all for your good, and they are sure to help you improve your project, but they will require you to rewrite sections (if not your entire) paper. This can be time-consuming, so it’s not a great strategy if your paper is due soon. However, if you have some time to kill, then rewriting much of your paper can help to greatly improve your grade.
- Higher Risk of Plagiarism
By having someone else work with you, there will be a greater risk of plagiarism. The risk is higher because your helper may give you information without a citation, you may be tempted to copy your helper’s work, or because you are using their ideas or suggestions without citing them on the paper. Taking credit for your helper’s work may also get them in trouble for plagiarism, even if they do not know that you used their work as their own. Because of this, you will need to be careful with working with others and getting help from a classmate or tutor so that neither of you gets in trouble.
Now you know some of the pros and cons of having someone help you with your essay writing. We hope this article will help you decide whether to get help or not!