There are now humanizer apps that help you make the writing done by your AI app sound more human. I sincerely don’t understand why it isn’t faster abd simpler to write what you need to write yourself.
You don’t need a humanizer app to write like a human for you. You already have a human. It’s you.
Clarissa's Blog 
I’m of mixed opinions here. On the one hand if its in your subject matter you really should be writing said papers yourself.
However at the same time I am fully aware that a lot of colleges and high-schools for that matter have students writing papers as either busy work in subjects that are (required) but should not be, or in subjects that they must take to earn their degree, but have nothing to do with the student’s field of studies.
In those cases I feel like it is perfectly fine to use an AI to write the papers for you. I would even be ok with the students using them to find answers to questions on tests. But again only in the subjects they are being forced to take, that have nothing to do with their degree.
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I disagree with your take. Writing is a skill like any other, and the more opportunities to practice it, the better. The subject does not matter. Using AI to do assigned writing is first of all cheating, but more importantly, deprives the person of this important practice. At the end, they may cheat the teacher and get their A, but they are really shortchanging themselves.
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I forgot to sign the response above – random reader.
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Exactly, we should teach skills. Being able to write well is a skill. It’s going to be increasingly rare and valuable for reasons we all understand.
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Most of our students will see their profession automated out of existence at least once in their lifetimes. Even my father, born in 1951, saw his profession automated away and had to switch into something completely new in his mid-forties. We will not be doing any favors to students by fostering in them an attachment to one specific discipline that might not exist by the end of the decade.
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That’s not really what I was aiming at. The point that I am making from the other side of this, is that if institutions are requiring students to take courses that have nothing to do with their field of study, then those students are under no obligation to play by the rules, and thus I am perfectly fine with them reclaiming their time by using an AI to write the make-work essays assigned to them.
As for writing as a skill. I do see where the two of you are going with this. However I will point out, that it is fairly rare that you actually need to write essays…. well ever really. And even when you do have to write, as we have had to write letters for clients to the IRS. Generally speaking the ones reading said letters don’t actually care if it is worded with proper punctuation, etc. Just as long as the proper information is given.
I would also like to bring up my 6th grade math teacher Mrs. Taylor. A lovely lady, and an all around joy. She refused to allow calculators in her classroom because as she stated, “you won’t always have a calculator with you.” She was wrong in the end even if she meant well.
My point is, while yes everyone should learn to write. These students are in college. If they cannot write by this point after what 10+ years in school, a few extra essays isn’t going to fix that. And if their job requires them to write well, then going back to my original point, they should be writing their own. It is the make-work and required courses outside of their own fields which I stated I have no issue with the students using said AI for.
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I have a few thoughts. If the education is useless to the point where AI can be used to complete assignments it is better not to have it. I am in STEM and writing is super-important. There are all kinds of lab reports that students need to write and it is very frustrating if they are not able to write well. If they end up getting a position in their field, I fail to see how not communicating their work with someone is not going to happen via emails, presentations, white papers and technical reports. Even if the classes they are taking are making them write on the topics that are not technical, it is helpful.
Also, as Clarissa already pointed out, it is unclear how many of these students will get a job in their selected field of study. Being able to write well, will give them more options rather than less.
I better not start about the calculator and the importance of being able to do mental math, because this reply would get too long 😉 However, I will say that if you work in a field where you need to use calculator/computer to compute things often it is important to have a good sense of numbers and functions so you can spot when your calculator is spitting nonsense. The only way to cultivate this sense is to be able to do at least simple, basic things without your calculator. Your teacher was right, but perhaps not for the reasons she stated.
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I’m watching a whole generation of students rediscover the importance of writing by hand. And it’s great. Because it does help. They’ll sour on AI too eventually once the novelty wears off.
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One of the reasons I picked the current school for my child is because writing in cursive is an integral part of their curriculum. They teach children to write in cursive as they are learning how to read and write and then the children are required to keep using cursive for writing. Ironically, some parents consider this be a useless skill and would prefer that their 6-year olds learn how to type, which I find funny. I personally find taking notes and writing a very important part of my way of processing and learning information and writing in cursive is so much easier than writing in block letters. In order for it to work, it has to be hand writing, typing does not work as well. These things tend to be genetic so it was important to me for my kid to have the opportunity to have this skill. Interestingly, reading/writing in cursive also helps dyslexia since the letters look much different (my child struggled with distinguishing d, p, q and b shapes but the same problem doesn’t exist in cursive). It is possible that some people are more visual learners or process information better by hearing it. In any case, it is better for a person to have more tools at their disposal rather than less, so these “useless” skills (like handwriting) are actually quite important, in my opinion.
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We are obligating them (although not for long) to take courses outside of their field of study because whatever the field of study is might not exist soon enough. Putting all your eggs into one basket made sense in the past. That past is now gone. Everybody needs to ask themselves, if my entire field is eliminated tomorrow, how will I make a living? You need to cultivate several fields.
And by the way, the current far-left college administrators are more in agreement with you than with me. My university is doing everything to remove the general education requirements and force everybody into a major before they even arrive on campus. I’m doing my darndest to resist this trend.
As for writing. What people have to do is build their personal brand. When their profession is automated away, the brand will travel with them and pave way into a new profession. How do you build that brand? How do you advertise it if not with words? Which personal brand has a chance to be successful, a mass-produced AI slop one or an instantly recognizable, highly idiosyncratic and clearly human?
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I had to rewrite this as it was coming off too much as an attack rather than a response. So here is attempt #2.
I think you have fallen into two pitfalls without realizing it. The first one is one that people fall into all the time. That is looking at what they do and their circumstances and thinking that fits for everyone.
At work a few of people I have met keep falling into this. They have been in this line of work so long, that they get confused when people don’t understand how things work in finance. They don’t remember that to 19 of 20 people, almost none of what we do every week is something that they will even see much less contemplate even once every decade.
I feel like since you are in a field where writing is a primary skill you are thinking that it must be a primary skill for everyone else. And I can tell you without any hesitation that it is not. I can go down my list of clients from a great many walks of life and job types and maybe 1 in 20 actually has to write anything outside an email, and even then its maybe once every few years.
Reading and Writing are skills that everyone needs to know, but the overwhelmingly vast percentage don’t need above basic levels, because they will not need them in life. This by the way is why cursive is no longer being taught, even though it too was once a primary skill.
The second pitfall I feel like you have fallen into, and this isn’t really meant to be a criticism. It feels like you are acting like the students are your kids by proxy. And that is not a bad thing for a teacher. However it does seem to be blinding you to remembering that these are independent adults.
I don’t expect the majority of them to have any idea of what they want to do. I didn’t at their age, and even today I still don’t. They are there because they were told if you don’t have a college degree you will be poor and likely without a husband or wife.
The thing is most of them have a course they are studying. They did not sign up for a general degree. They signed up to study history, or science, or accounting, or even literature, etc. Now you are right, a lot of these fields are looking like they will collapse soon. And I fully support telling the students in those fields to beware of that.
The issue is, these extra required courses are not free. By pushing them, you are requiring these students to spend more years of their lives to learn a skill they already know. To study literature that was considered make-work even back in high-school. To take physical ed classes, because….. well no good reason was ever actually given, just that it was required.
All these extra courses cost both time and money. Frankly by pushing this, even though I believe its coming from a good place, you are doing your students a disservice. By all means recommend they take these courses. But requiring them is simply wrong. And to clarify, I understand you have no part in making them mandatory, but you are supporting the position.
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Who is doing these people’s LinkedIn pages? Are they hiring somebody to do that?
As for money, most of our students don’t pay anything for instruction. It’s free for incomes under $100,000.
But it’s ok, the university now will assign college credit for out of college “experiences.” I’m sure that is so much better than the system created in the Middle Ages that bore extraordinary fruit for centuries.
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“They did not sign up for a general degree. They signed up to study history, or science, or”
To simplify a bit there are different types of courses in American education.
General education (make sure they know what they were supposed to learn in high school)
Courses in their area of specialization (divided into required and elective)
Elective courses outside their area of specialization.
This fits a core traditional value of American education which is that a person should be well-rounded and have exposure to other disciplines.
I realize a lot has changed and the general educational environment has been degraded (by both republicans and democrats, liberals and conservatives…. great cooperation guys!). But that’s a value I really hate to see disappear…
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This is one of the best things about American higher education which doesn’t exist in Canada, for example. And it’s not a great thing for Canada.
Gen Ed is going away, unfortunately. We are arguing over something that is being taken away from us by force. Everybody is being pushed into narrowly defined silos. This started at my university 1,5 years ago. Of course, schools for rich kids will be able to keep Gen Ed. Everybody else will be trained purposefully to get phased out.
Do you know how successful neoliberals get there? By convincing everybody else of the extreme importance of individual choice while placing their own self into a severe corset of duty and obligation.
We have already talked ourselves out of obligatory Latin. How is that going? So great, right?
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There is a trend in higher Ed that students should be able to choose their own grades. This is meant completely literally. If a student says his grade should be an A, you should assign it because it’s a form of violence to impose a grade he didn’t freely choose. I hope people understand why I don’t get warm and fuzzy feelings when somebody starts telling me about choice.
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cliff arroyo
“…which is that a person should be well-rounded and have exposure to other disciplines.”
Yes, but that was a long time ago. Hell, I took Latin, as well as French, in high school, and chose Art History as an elective in university — even rednecks mustn’t be utter barbarians ;-D
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I agree with this, EXCEPT:
We require a college degree for a bunch of jobs that in no way need to require a college degree.
This means we are forcing people who just want to go be a Registered Nurse, to take courses in literature and art history. Why? When my husband did his 2yr vocational licensing program for his current job, he still had to put in XYZ hours of gen-ed requirements that were completely irrelevant to the job. Even though he already had a completely irrelevant BA. We paid for that.
If we’re talking about high-level jobs that are going to make a lot of money, medical degrees, engineering, law… sure, a well-rounded education probably should be part of the picture. Please let’s not have trial lawyers ignorant of basic facts of biology and history.
But IF we’re going to force all the college kids to do that, it is only fair that we take an axe to the current job-credentialing racket that requires every friggin’ job that isn’t construction to have a college credential. The phleb needs to be good with needles. Makes no difference whatsoever if he has only the vaguest notion who Napoleon was. Can we please stop requiring xyz credit hours of unnecessary courses for people who are *on purpose* doing vocational programs to get a specific normie job. It made me very sad, back in the day, tutoring nursing students. They could read a chart well enough. Knew the difference between a bicep and a deltoid, how to measure blood pressure and install catheters. Why were we making them cry over comparative literature essays?
The problem with gen ed requirements isn’t the gen ed. It’s the part where we have taken a whole host of career-training paths that didn’t used to go through a college, and we’ve forced them into the college system. Take them out! If they must be trained in a college, put a wall between that and the other programs, so it can be streamlined and let them get their credential in less time, for less money.
I will be 100% pro gen-ed requirements on the day when we fix the credentialing racket, bring back OTJ training for most hourly-wage jobs, and allow employers to use aptitude tests in the job application process again. Nobody should have to spend four years in college at their own expense just to establish for potential employers the same info the Army gets by administering the ASVAB.
-ethyl
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I would be very very VERY happy if we stopped herding people into college and went back to what was there before this model. I find it to be deeply insane. But somehow saying anything against it makes one racist although I strongly believe that people of all races would hugely benefit from going back to normal vocational paths.
So yes, I’m completely pro what you say. Not everything has to be college. And college should be college. It should be what it historically was because that’s what brought greatness to our civilization.
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There are reasons why young people, especially young men, are deliberately switching from academia to the trades. The current far-left college system is hardly limited to its administration.
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I know, my friend. Believe me, I know. Academia shows no signs of leaving this disease in the past.
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And if it is a matter of adapt or die? Men measure.
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The idea of such an app sounds dystopian, I’m thinking of HAL from 2001 Space Oddysey. I handwrite my fiction in notebooks and type them up on my laptop, I have at least three notebooks of unfinished fictions that I am currently uploading on Wattpad and AO3 chapter by chapter when I have time. I cannot imagine a book written by AI, it would be the worst slop. I would never use AI to write, I have my own idiosyncratic style and interests and AI would only ruin them
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