ABSTRACT
In academic settings, at least in North America, the essay is the chief demonstration of literate competence. Students get into university only when they can write the essays required by high-school English courses and standardized language tests such as the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). To increase their chances of receiving scholarships, they write other essays as part of their application packages. On arrival, they sometimes have to write timed impromptu essays to show they can produce literacy on demand. On the basis of this testing, they are often (almost always, in the US) streamed into composition classes where they practice writing even more essays to certify that they are ready for their future studies. In the humanities and social sciences at least, they keep writing term essays and essay examinations to demonstrate that they can take part in the literate discourse of the disciplines in which they’re apprenticing. In the sciences they may escape most of those essays but suddenly need to write a long final-year thesis as equivalent demonstration that they have read and processed the literature of their disciplines. And then, often with some shock, they find that they need to write personal essays to get into graduate school – even, and especially, into medical school. You know what they write for graduate-course assignments, and in inflated form for dissertations, not to mention to apply for university teaching jobs and to secure tenure and promotion as full-fledged academics. So the essay form at university serves as a gateway – or sometimes it seems to be a portcullis, waiting to come down on students’ necks.
