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While writing tools based on AI (artificial intelligence) have been around for a while, the release of ChatGPT and the buzz it has created has shined a limelight on them like never before. One aspect under intense discussion is the use of ChatGPT by students as an essay writer.
The requirement to submit written assignments has long been a grouse amongst students at all levels of education—from middle school to grad school. Thus, the fact that they are jumping at the chance inadvertently provided by ChatGPT to use it as an easy way out of writing long essays and papers is no surprise.
Some teachers and lecturers are already able to pick out submissions generated by the AI chatbot, even without the use of specialized detection tools. A few institutions have banned ChatGPT on campuses, while others are attempting to circumvent its use through changes in course structures and designs. At the same time, the race to develop countermeasures–in the form of specialized detection tools–is also on.
As the debate rages on, it is worth taking a look at the value of the writing process that goes into composing essays and papers and why replacing it with the use of ChatGPT and other similar AI tools is not wise.
What is the Writing Process?
A few basic steps form the writing process that can be customized by individual writers.
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The act of writing is a personal one, and anyone who writes for any purpose (be it for academics, for work, or in a diary for personal record) develops their own routine and method to do so.
However, a few basic steps are common to all written works, whether they are formal or informal, fictional or non-fictional. They form the foundation over which an individual can build their own customized writing processes. They are especially relevant to students who need to write essays and long academic papers. These steps include research, planning, drafting, revising, and editing.
Research is the collection of all the information that has to be conveyed through the writer’s work. Planning lays out the structure in which the information will be organized in the paper/essay. Once these two steps are completed, the writing begins to produce the first draft. This will then go through a few revisions and edits before it becomes the final written piece.
ChatGPT vs. the Writing Process
The benefits of the writing process, particularly in the field of education, are numerous.
As students go through the various steps in the writing process, they are dealing with their subject matter deeply. Not only do they have to gather information, they also have to present it in a coherent manner. This puts them in the position of having to engage with it critically.
Research
As they research their subject, an avenue opens up for students to immerse themselves in it. It provides an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge about several facets of that subject that they may otherwise have never been exposed to. And once the planning and writing of the papers/essays begins, questions may arise that prompt further research to come up with answers. Thus, research is not a static step that ends when planning the paper starts. Rather, the learning opportunities it provides are a key benefit that can be derived from writing.
Resorting to ChatGPT for this step severely cuts out these benefits. When prompted, it presents the user with a collation based on the information that it has been trained on. Not only is this information restricted to data that was available up until 2021, it may also include factual errors. At the same time, the student is no longer engaging with the matter. All side streets to explore the information are closed as they are presented with a relatively short write-up that, on the surface, appears to satisfy their immediate query. The lack of a larger context in this write-up, or references to related concepts or ideas (as would pop up when conducting research), takes away the opportunity for further questions to arise.
Planning and Writing
Using an AI tool to generate essays instead of writing them can deprive students of the benefits of the writing process.
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Once the student begins planning and writing their assignment, their engagement with the information becomes deeper. The collected information has to now be presented in a manner that best conveys the message the student is trying to send. Critical thinking, analytical, and reasoning skills are developed along with the writing. Points must be made logically and organized in a manner that makes persuasive arguments.
The act of writing is, of course, greatly beneficial for the development of overall language and communication skills. The more one does it, the better they get—not only at the organization and presentation of gathered information, but also at the articulation and understanding of their own thoughts and thinking processes. Thus, writing allows the writer to develop their own distinctive voice and style, and one important way it does this is by creating a space that allows for the drawing of new connections within the matter.
On the other hand, relying on an AI tool such as ChatGPT to generate entire essays and other written assignments once again deprives the student of these perks of writing–there is no critical involvement with the information.
Adding to this is a final product that is devoid of a human or individual voice. ChatGPT definitely does perform in a manner that is significantly different from the other chatbots that came before it. While its response does make waves, the actual text it generates still reads as wooden and repetitive and is not exempt from AI bias. In essence, nothing new is produced; rather, existing material is simply rehashed without the addition of any new value.
Other advantages of writing that a reliance on AI text generators takes away is the better understanding and recall of the information granted by relaying information in one’s own words. The development of writing skills is essential for life beyond education and academics as well.
Revisions and Editing
These are the final steps of the writing process, and they are essential for refining the piece. They help detect and rectify any errors that may have been made.
At the same time, they are an ideal opportunity to revisit the written work and ensure that the writing is the most effective that it can be. Being able to rewrite one’s own work to make it more potent provides an organic extension and strengthening of all the benefits that being able to write and articulate offer.
ChatGPT produces passages that are grammatically sound. This can easily lead students to assume that they do not require these last refining steps of revision and editing, except to maybe make them sound less stilted.
However, in order to successfully edit any piece–whether it has been generated by AI, or written by oneself or other people–some prior interaction with the subject matter is required. Thus, when an AI tool is used to completely skip the research and writing steps, the piece it produces cannot really be edited effectively.
Even when the intention is only to make the writing read smoother, the editor may end up having to conduct their own research and then rewrite large sections of the piece.
The Verdict
The writing process can take a while and definitely requires effort. However, the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT is likely to cut out, besides the time and effort, most, if not all, of the learning and reasoning benefits it can afford students.
Using ChatGPT as an essay generator may produce a piece that can be considered “original.” However, it does not actually contain any original information or thought. All the opportunities for in-depth learning are foregone. The student has simply submitted an essay/paper.
The possibilities that an AI tool like ChatGPT can present may be exciting. But using it as a writer to generate essays or papers, or even other kinds of communications such as emails, is likely to be detrimental in the long run. The engagement of the writing process is critical for the production of effective, creative, and original messages, and replacing it altogether will likely harm learning and communication skills.