Editing Essay (section)

==Academic==
[[File:Czythumbur.jpg|thumb|[[University student]]s, like these students doing research at a university library, are often assigned essays as a way to get them to analyze what they have read.]]
{{main|Free response}}
In countries like the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]], essays have become a major part of a formal [[education]] in the form of [[free response]] questions. Secondary students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in selecting applicants (''see'' [[admissions essay]]). In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of the material. Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. In some courses, university students must complete one or more essays over several weeks or months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences,{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} mid-term and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or three hours.

In these countries, so-called academic essays, also called ''papers'', are usually more formal than literary ones.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} They may still allow the presentation of the writer's own views, but this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the [[first-person narrative|first person]] often discouraged. Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 and 5,000 words){{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} are often more discursive.  They sometimes begin with a short summary analysis of what has previously been written on a topic, which is often called a [[literature review]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

Longer essays may also contain an introductory page that defines words and phrases of the essay's topic. Most academic institutions require that all substantial facts, quotations, and other supporting material in an essay be referenced in a [[bibliography]] or works cited page at the end of the text. This scholarly convention helps others (whether teachers or fellow scholars) to understand the basis of facts and quotations the author uses to support the essay's argument. The bibliography also helps readers evaluate to what extent the argument is supported by evidence and to evaluate the quality of that evidence. The academic essay tests the student's ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and is designed to test their intellectual capabilities.

One of the challenges facing universities is that in some cases, students may submit essays purchased from an [[essay mill]] (or "paper mill") as their own work. An "essay mill" is a [[ghostwriting]] service that sells pre-written essays to university and college students. Since [[plagiarism]] is a form of [[academic dishonesty]] or [[academic fraud]], universities and colleges may investigate papers they suspect are from an essay mill by using [[plagiarism detection]] software, which compares essays against a database of known mill essays and by orally testing students on the contents of their papers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Khomami |first=Nadia |title=Plan to crack down on websites selling essays to students announced |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/feb/21/plan-to-crack-down-on-websites-selling-essays-to-students-announced |newspaper=The Guardian |date=20 February 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427193720/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/feb/21/plan-to-crack-down-on-websites-selling-essays-to-students-announced |archive-date=27 April 2017 }}</ref>