I just want to use this opportunity to express my hatred for essays: Essays, I loathe thee .

Ok, that's it.

Actually there are many reasons why I don't like them:

It is extremely subjective.
Maybe not as much for science essay, but essays for psychology (esp!) are so subjective. I spent so much time preparing for one, coming up with possibilities to link some ideas together, and then added references to support my points, only to have my TA commenting on something like i need more discussion and analysis, when the entire paper was my own analysis @*#^$*.

... that's all I can think of for now, actually. Feel free to add more reasons or say why you love essays instead .

I completely detest writing that does not compliment your own imagination, interests, and style. Essays are typically nothing but this, unfortunately.

I hate essays. They make me focus on one topic that really gives me no chance to be a smart ass or randomly express how smart I am on another topic, as they are almost always on something I don't understand.

I hate the word limit a lot too . I'm not even close to done and I'm already pass the limit. Argh!

Yeah, word limits really shit me. Take last year; a psychology prac write-up in only 1500 words? Come on. They take it from you, grade it about 70%, hand it back and give you a long list of ways that you could improve it by including this and this and this and this and this. But of course, having been only 10 or so words under the word limit, if you ask them what you should have excluded in order to make room for all this, they don't have an answer.

Exactly! Sometimes I think they're just giving people random marks that would lead to a certain class average. I mean, how is it possible to have a 0.5% difference on two essays that cover entirely different topics? I am thinking of what my friend got, and what I got, and the amount of info i put in certainly include a lot more detail and research background than her essay. Yet i got that -0.5% just because i went off the word limit... by quite a lot actually >.>. Even so, I really dont think exceeding the word limit could result in that much deductions. And if that is the main reason for deducting my mark, that's just saying format > content.

On a happier note, im finally done with my current essay!

I got a 2000 word Psychology essay that's due in about 5.5 weeks from now. Still haven't given us the topic or anything; all they've said is we'll be interviewing little kids and conducting an experiment with them. So yeah, good on them for telling us what our assessment is, just like to know when they're going to tell us exactly what they want us to write on...

That being said, I did a Philosophy course last year where part of the assessment was eight 200 word 'essays'. How you're meant to outline, discuss, critique and then state your own opinion on any philosophical argument(s) in only 200 words astounds me. Even our main assignment, which was 1200 words, wasn't enough; they hand it back with an average grade telling you what should have been included, yet you must still manage to condense it all into the half dozen words you've got left in the limit without actually cutting anything else out...

I hate writing in general. I can write fine on a computer, but as soon as I'm given a pen, everything I write makes no sense whatsoever.

I rather like writing, even if it is an essay for some class that requires a strict format and has a word limit. It is not too hard for me to follow the guidelines. I just hate having to cut some of my fine work out when I have surpassed the limit.