Janie B. Cheaney: Essays in the age of AI

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, August 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Long before AI could write a paragraph, students had to figure things out one sentence at a time.

WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney now on what we’ve gained and what we’re at risk of losing.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: While sorting through papers last week, I came across exam questions dating back to my sophomore year in college. The class was New Testament Epistles and the teacher, Mr. Kendrick, was known for short finals. Short, that is, in the number of questions. Long in the execution, because they were all essay questions. Printed on one mimeographed sheet—which will give you a hint how long ago this was—they were:

• Develop Paul’s major ideas as presented in the Doctrinal Section of the Ephesian Letter, chapters 1-3.

• Comment on the nature of the Colossian heresy and relate this to the person and work of Christ as developed in 1:15-20 .

• Compare and elaborate upon the teaching of Paul on the social order of the Christian household as developed in both Ephesians and Colossians.

The essays I wrote are long gone, along with the grade. Even if it wasn’t an A, I’m still rather impressed that I could tackle those topics in some logical fashion at the age of 19. Writing was my strong suit, but I’ll bet most of my classmates were able to turn in something more or less coherent, even if light on content. Essay writing was just something you did in college, because you’d already done lots of it in high school.

Over the last few decades, college instructors have noted a decline in the quality of student composition, along with a rise in plagiarism and online essay peddling. Now, with easy access to ChatGPT and other large language models in the classroom, many teachers are rethinking the academic writing process altogether. Maybe essays aren’t that important. Maybe they’re an outmoded relic from the days of hardcover books and print journalism. Maybe they showcase skills that aren’t needed as much in the age of AI.

National Review intern Moira Gleason interviewed a handful of humanities professors on the use of generative AI in the classroom—“generative” referring to using large language models to create new content from scraps of information. Answers ranged from no tolerance to cautious incorporation, but all agreed on the importance of writing as thinking. And that the real purpose of a writing assignment, such as a formal essay, is not the finished product but the process of discovering what you think about a topic. An essay should make sense first of all to the writer, who has come to certain conclusions based on facts and logic rather than memes and TikTok videos.

Teachers know AI is here to stay. The challenge is teaching students what it’s for. But what is it for? The technology is so new there’s no consensus on that, only individual preferences. Should it be used as a research assistant or a first edit? Is it best for generating ideas or testing them?

As it turns out, the bottom line is the same bottom line it’s always been: students must be convinced of the importance of thinking. That’s always been a hard sell for kids who are maneuvering to get through school as painlessly as possible. AI just makes it a lot harder.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

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