This is a very controversial question considering that my blog mostly consists of short essays, however I have written this essay for the Dukes plus essay competition. Academic  potential can be defined as one’s ability to comprehend subjects, analyse them effectively and to create academic content in the future by providing alternative viewpoints. Essays can demonstrate a vast amount about ones academic potential from their content to their format thus I believe essays do still  demonstrate a students academic potential but they should not be the sole indicator of one's academic potential.

Personally I enjoy writing essays and I consider them to be a great way of practising how to formulate an argument. They are or should be formatted in a way that is easy to read, which highlights the ability of the student to clearly express their views. Essays can be assigned to be written after detailed research is done on a certain topic or to explain the findings of an investigation, yet a certain conclusion or argument always stands out in a balanced essay. Students who also present a more unique viewpoint stand out as more academically capable as they present the potential to help expand the field of knowledge in that area in the future. For example in the Oxford TSA admissions test, in section 2 the questions all require a view to be expressed, as well as considering the counterpoint, as this shows that the student is capable of possibly debating about the subject and engaging with peers or teachers.Thus academic potential can be inferred from essay as one may be able to conclude from a coherently argued, straight to the point essay, that the student is able to participate in academic discussions and progress in their learning.

Knowledge and factual information is the basis of any essay as most academic essays are based on evidence and observations widely accepted and made.In most circumstances, essays will have a view, but we will come onto the significance of this later on.Remembering facts and becoming an expert on certain subjects is one of the key indicators of academic skill and the potential to learn even more.Additionally, possibly linking to the question or to other topics/ factors within the essay, demonstrates the students ability to comprehend the relationship between different subjects/topics. Interdisciplinary subjects such as Politics, Economics and Philosophy can be expressed in essays through the explanation of the link which thus proves the academic potential of the student as demonstrate their breadth of knowledge.Thus an essay is able to demonstrate the brain capacity and capability of understanding different subjects.

However, acquiring large amounts of knowledge is not the only way academic potential can be measured. It can also be measured by the explanation of this knowledge and the depth of understanding. Often, essays are on a specific topic and could be very niche, depending on the question or context but this means that an explanation of the knowledge acquired is an essential part of an essay and makes up the bulk of it. The classic PEEL structure of point evidence and explanation is used in the majority of essays. Explaining facts or evidence found expresses to the reader whether the person truly understands what they have memorised/ found. This shows their ability to grasp the concept, therefore expressing their academic potential. One may argue that the development of the explanation in an essay or the number of  relevant facts listed may not accurately reflect the academic potential of the student due to the conditions it was written in. Essays are often used in exams to test the academic potential of a student and thus there is often also time constraints. A student may not have enough time to develop their explanation and may forget certain facts due to them having a mind blank thus they receive a low mark which means the teacher concludes they have low academic potential. Yet if the essay was written at home with their textbook open and they were given a week to write it, the student may be able to produce a much higher quality essay which does accurately reflect their academic potential. Whilst I do agree that the effectiveness of essays in demonstrating the academic potential of a student depends on the conditions it was written in, as exams are the most fair way of assessing students as they can be prevented from cheating, essays should not be written outside supervision unless they are for the purpose of research projects or a write up for an investigation. That being said, a possible solution could be is to create exams that feature other methods of demonstrating the academic potential of a student such as multiple choice questions and shorter one line questions. This hybrid way of assessing academic potential can ensure all aspects such as analytical skills, understanding and original viewpoints can be assessed. This is also due to understanding of a topic in maths, for example, only able to be assessed via short questions and not essays. Yet there are also subjects such as Biology where research papers can be in the form of an essay, but assessing knowledge about human anatomy may just require a few multiple choice questions. The similarity is that all these forms of questions assess the academic potential of the student.

Overall essays do still demonstrate the academic potential of a student as they highlight the analytical skills of the individual and is the only way a clear viewpoint of a student is able to be easily conveyed. Essays are good the majority of the time in assessing one's potential but in some circumstances they may not accurately represent the individual's academic capabilities and in certain subjects, essay are not the most practical way of assessing this. I believe, a hybrid model is the best solution yet I am not disregarding the power an essay can have in demonstration the academic potential of an individual.