The First Post of the Semester

Andrew Murray
ENC 1102/Sec 30
January 13, 2010
Andrew.murray@knights.ucf.edu
The Worst Essay Known to Mankind
(455)

Throughout my high school and college academic career, I have written many essays on various topics ranging from Abraham Lincoln to explaining the theme of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. A majority of these essays have pushed me to my limit as a writer because they truly tested my ability as a writer. However, the essay that I remember vividly to be the greatest struggle occurred last year during my AP English class. Dealing with the novel Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte, our teacher assigned us to read the whole book and then made us write a narrative as one of the most pointless characters in the novel. This was the worst essay topic I have ever received and consequently the worst essay I have ever written.
To begin with, Jane Eyre was at least 400 pages long and this assignment was given with less than a week to complete. Not to mention, being a senior in high school with an extreme case of senioritis made the assignment seem rather preposterous. Not to feel less guilty, but the other students in the class shared the same opinions about this assignment as I did. I remember walking out of class once it was over thinking, “Sparknotes.com is going to be my best friend while I write this paper.”
After blatantly disregarding my teacher’s instruction of reading the book, I decided to begin writing the essay with the help of Sparknotes.com. Laziness and fatigue accompanied me throughout the entire journey of this assignment; clearly this was the last thing that I had wanted to do my senior year in high school.
The final product of the essay consisted solely of a character summary that could be found on Sparknotes.com. Nonetheless, the essay wound up looking like a bunch of words sloppily thrown together, as if it was written in a foreign language. Asking students to read over 400 pages is one thing, but assigning a paper that dealt with a narrative of pointless character was another thing.
Throughout the construction of this paper, I constantly questioned my ability as a writer because I felt guilty by almost plagiarizing someone else’s ideas for basically the whole narrative. The moment after I turned this essay into my teacher, I knew this was the worst essay I have ever written.
Ever since that day occurred over a year ago, I have been blessed to never have to write an essay of that caliber again. I have regained my confidence as a writer and now, more than ever, am eager to write because I know no essay will ever compare to that disaster.