Classroom features
Essay for educators
Essay is built to help students learn to write and think for themselves. We've integrated our core writing tools into a classroom ecosystem. Teachers can assign work, track submissions, and review students' writing with more insight into their process. Students can access instructions and resources, and get a structured workspace to plan, draft, edit and submit their work. Essay handles the entire writing process from start to finish. See how it works:
Classes
Bring your class together
Group your students into classes and assign them work. Each class has its own page where you can view your assignments and manage students.
For teachers
- Create a class for each course or section
- Invite students by email, by CSV upload, or with a class link
- Approve join requests, manage your class list, and see when each student was last active
For students
- Join a class from an email invite or class link
- View assignments, upcoming due dates and classmates
Assignments
Assign your students work
Create assignments and give students everything they need to get started. Structure it as a single submission, or break it into stages so students submit the essay step by step.
For teachers
- Set a due date, length requirement and citation style (MLA, APA or Chicago)
- Attach rubrics, readings, prompts or sample essays
- Provide a template to give your students a starting point or structure to work from
- Split the assignment into milestones like outline, first draft and final draft, each with its own due date and submission
For students
- Instructions, resources and due dates are all on the assignment page
- Instructions are available directly in the editor so students can refer back to them while they write
- Start an essay from the assignment page with the citation style and template (if provided) already applied to the new document
Student workspace
A workspace built for writing
Most word processors open with a blank page and offer no guidance. Essay breaks writing into stages and gives students a tool for each one. Engaging with their ideas in different ways at each stage teaches them to slow down, be deliberate, and think things through. Students develop a repeatable process they can carry forward, and learn to think critically and for themselves.
The Essay process
- Topic explorer. Pick a topic they're interested in and care about
- References. Find and collect academic resources.
- Notes. Brainstorm ideas, conduct research and compile evidence
- Outline. Map out each section and build the skeleton of their argument
- Produce. Write a rough draft. Get their ideas on the page without worrying about spelling and grammar so they can see what they’re working with.
- Rewrite. Write new versions of each sentence to try and improve them. Compare each version within the context of the paragraph.
- Reorder. Restructure sentences and paragraphs to improve the flow of their argument
- Format. Format their essay to MLA, APA or Chicago. Add a title page, page numbers and bibliography before submitting.
Submissions
Every submission in one place
Students submit their work directly to the assignment page, so you don't have to chase files through email or shared drives. See the submission status for the whole class at a glance.
For teachers
- See each student's status: not submitted, submitted, reviewed, returned or overdue
- Filter by student, milestone or status
- Export submissions in bulk as PDF, Google Docs or Word
- Close an assignment when you're done accepting work
For students
- Submit work directly from the editor
- Each submission is saved as a snapshot, so they can keep working without changing what they handed in
- Notified when you return their work so they can review your feedback and improve their next draft
Writing process
More visibility into the process
Most writing tools only show you the student's final draft. Essay shows you the work that went into it.
- Version history
- Essay saves a snapshot every 15 minutes, so you can see whether the work was built over time or pasted in all at once
- Rewrite history
- See every version of a sentence the student wrote and the one they chose. It shows whether they took the time to edit and how their thinking developed
- Notes and references
- See the research behind the argument and check where each source is cited in the essay
- Earlier submissions
- Switch between submissions to compare drafts and see whether the student acted on your earlier feedback
Students can “show their work” and get credit for the effort they put in. A student who rewrote a sentence four times was thinking hard about it. When you can see their process, you can give them better guidance to help them improve.
Feedback
A better way to give feedback
Leave clear, focused feedback, and keep track of where you are in your stack of essays.
- Choose from seven feedback categories to give students more specific insights to improve their writing
- Move from one student's submission to the next without leaving the feedback editor
- The assignment tracker shows how many submissions you've reviewed and what's left
- Feedback stays private until you return it. Return each essay as you finish, or the whole class at once
- Feedback remains on the submission it was given on, so students can refer back to it while working on the next draft
Templates
Give students a place to start
Templates let you set the structure you want your students to work in, like a literary analysis essay with the sections already laid out.
For teachers
- Build templates in Essay, save an existing document as one, or import one from your files or Google Drive
- Add a template to any assignment
For students
- Start the assignment with the template already loaded and connected
Use templates to teach editing: Write a deliberately weak essay or paragraph and attach it to an assignment as a template. Have students identify and correct the mistakes using Essay's editing tools. See every sentence they rewrote, and compare their final draft against the original in version history.
Bring Essay to your school.
To learn more and explore how Essay might fit at your school, contact Derek Perry.
Derek PerryDirector, Business Development