Originally posted by MET student Amanda Klassen on 26/01/2020.
Many of us have the experience of writer’s block. Moreover, while we may have been taught how to write the perfect 5 paragraph keyhole essay in high school, we are at a loss for how to approach 1000+ word essays in university. Essay Jack aims to demystify this process by walking students through how to organize their specific assignment.
Check out their pitch:
This is very interesting. Something that veers away from relying on the “hamburger/sandwich essay structure” that students are shown. Funny, this reminds me of a post about AI in education in my 512 course that discussed the Transformer Neural Network (https://app.inferkit.com/demo). Unfortunately, the project has been taken down due to lack of funding, but the Transformer was able to take a topic statement that a user typed into its input, and it would output a short discussion on the topic. Kind of neat, and unique in its output, and could be paired with Essay Jack quite nicely.
I like how the website breaks down the task to smaller paragraphs and with the prompts, students will feel less intimidated to complete the tasks. I wonder if the website should include elements presented in the Research Paper Calculator (https://assignmentcalculators.library.ubc.ca/research-paper/index.php) to reach a wider audience. Let’s face it, when working with students, the first things they said when asking what they wish to improve upon were usually time management and organization skill! One thing I don’t like about the website is how it talks about the feature of copy your work to use in other assignments. Perhaps I’m not interpreting this correctly but even copy your own work without proper citation would be considered as against academic integrity. If the copy function is one of the star features for this website, there should at least be some explanations on how to cite properly.
I can definitely see the value in programs that help students construct essays. As someone who has experienced writers block and wasted a lot of time staring at a blank screen I would consider using this product but I would not be interested as an investor. The main reason is that I see problems in the market. For one, there is numerous essay writing software available such as Essay Dog, Essay Shark and Essay Bot. I don’t see what makes Essay Jack different from the competitors. Also, I wonder exactly who would be willing to buy the product. Essay Jack costs $100 per year for a single subscription which is a lot of money for a student to spend when it’s quite easy to find free information on essay structure.
Very funny that they show Microsoft word as a blank sheet only. I am sure that they know if they open “new” Microsoft word file and choose “essay”, they will get several template that students can choose from. All other tools (like emailing or sharing) are found in M. word as well. The best part google doc does the same for free!
I highly disagree with this review, as Microsoft Word and Google Docs might provide essay templates, but they are in no way similar to what Essay Jack is doing. Essay Jack helps students with the writing process to empower students who struggle with writing, whereas Microsoft Word and Google Doc are just Word Editors.
Students who struggle with writing would benefit from using a software that has a graphic organizer and provides them with prompting and suggestions. This software provides the structure and guides with clear examples for section starters that can make the process of writing less overwhelming. It was interesting to me that this software is created by a Canadian company and works in partnership with other Canadian companies such as NELSON.
Kevin questions in his review what value does Essay Jack brings in comparison to Essay Dog, Essay Shark and Essay Bot. After looking into those softwares, Essay Dog is an american software that specializes in writing essays for college applications. Essay Shark is a Canadian Essay writing service, where you hire writers to write the essay for you. And Essay bot, is a software that helps you write the essay by rephrasing existing content and adding it to the essay. If a student doesn’t have a clear understanding of how to write an essay, this would only provide a disconnected bunch of paragraphs. Essay Jack actually helps students with the writing process, in a similar way that a teacher would help a student. Starting with a graphic organizer, and then by helping with prompting questions and suggestions in every section.
From the venture perspective, Essay Jack is a type of SAAS (Software as a Service) or a cloud-based software founded in 2015, it officially launched in 2019 with $350K in funding and it currently has a $250K ARR (annual recurring revenue). The company is currently using an approach of connecting with universities and educational partners to distribute the software. I personally don’t think that universities would be promoting services such as Essay Shark or Essay Bot to their students, but they are currently partnering with Essay Jack as it is a similar support students would find at the writing centre or from teachers.
Here is a link that provide more information about this venture from an investor perspective:
https://getlatka.com/companies/essayjack-inc
Here is a link to a recent interview with the CEO Lindy Ledohowski
https://youtu.be/okWtAWi8wmE
I imagine Essay Jack to be very helpful for students when they are writing. I have been thinking about how to recreate the process writing approach for my students in the virtual learning environment when I saw this software, I am sold!
As a language instructor, I would not recommend essay writing services such as Essay Shark or Essay Bot simply because students are paying someone else to write for them, learning minimally to nothing in the process. But it is different with Essay Jack. With the writing templates and prompts, students’ writing anxiety could be reduced and being guided in the writing process makes it encouraging to begin and continue writing, picking up writing skills and building confidence in writing.