The Cost of Using AI to Do Writing Assignments

"Writing and thinking and learning [are] the same process."

-William Zinsser, Writing to Learn

Like many English teachers, I have my concerns regarding the adverse impact that ChatGPT will have on how students will learn to write.

This is why I appreciate Irina Dumitrescu's essay published in The Walrus entitled "Will ChatGPT Kill the Student Essay?" I hope that by sharing some of her points, students will be encouraged to keep up their efforts of learning to write, even when ChatGPT is a fingertip away.

Dumitrescu points out that when students see writing merely as a standard "product they deliver in return for a grade," relying on ChatGPT may even seem logical given the time it saves. Just use AI to generate some writing that can then be adapted, and the job is done. Efficiency--isn't this the mindset for producing writing in the workplace?

But this is not the purpose of writing essays in school: "The goal of school writing isn’t to produce goods for a market."

When students start to see writing not as a product but as a process, a process through which they learn how to think and communicate their ideas, they can come to recognize its benefits: "Writing is an invaluable part of how students learn," Dumitrescu writes, "And much of what they learn begins with the hard, messy work of getting the first words down."

The author presents solid reasons for why students ought to persevere in the demanding task of writing.

When students tackle a writing topic, they are grappling with many ideas--with no organization to them, with "imperfect" and "inadequate" ways of expressing those ideas. It is in the process of writing that students must decide which ideas are irrelevant or relevant, which order to express those ideas, and which words are the most precise way of expressing them. In doing so, students are making creative discoveries, bringing forth or putting together ideas that may be inside of them.

She compares learning to write to learning to ride a bicycle or working out at the gym. Developing writing skills requires ambition, focus, and commitment.

By being urged to see through the task of finishing an entire composition (without relying on AI), students are being taught "how to persist through intellectual challenges," Dumitrescu asserts.

Students are also more likely to remember content when they have to write about it on their own, the author notes.

In essence, the cost of students relying on AI to do their writing for them is opportunities to do critical thinking and problem-solving, skills that are vital to their mental development.

Given the great ChatGPT temptation, how can English teachers motivate students to endure in the formidable journey of learning to write well? Dumitrescu presents a worthwhile mission: teach students to "write the kinds of things a machine can't" and to value that work. And she concludes by calling on teachers to take responsibility for helping students to understand "why writing matters, perhaps most of all when it's difficult."

Works Cited

Dumitrescu, Irina. "Will ChatGPT Kill the Student Essay? Universities Aren’t Ready for the Answer." The Walrus, 24 Mar. 2023, https://thewalrus.ca/chatgpt-writing/.