I’m sure you can list many reasons too. I love how AI can help improve our writing but it will never (never?) replace a personal writing teacher. I fully support AI technology but there are limitations, and helping improve essay writing skills is one of them. It is a great tool to help improve your written work but it can’t beat a teacher to help you improve your writing skills. Here are four reasons why AI is not a great tool to help you improve your writing skills.
First, it will write for you but you will have to be a very good writer to be able to understand its suggestions and apply what it generates. ChatGPT completely re-writes your work. Of course, the instructions you give AI are very important. For this example, I asked ChatGPT, “Improve this 100-level 150-word essay based on the prompt, “Big companies have a positive effect on society.” You can see in red how it changed every bit of my writing.
Try submitting the improved essay that ChatGPT produced and it will give you a very different response (each time you resubmit). Great way to avoid plagiarism if it’s graded but a terrible way to help you improve your writing.
Second, let’s take the above example and ask it for three ways to improve my writing and give examples of these improvements. As an teacher, I never give more than the suggestions to improve one piece of writing. A student can apply two or three suggestions in their next draft and no more. When I asked, “Give me 3 suggestions on how to make this essay better and provide examples of your suggestions’” Here is what Perplixity.ai came up with. I will only provide the first one.
There is very little a student can learn from this because it does not give specific feedback. It could be handed in for grades and given an A but the student’s next writing would probably not improve much. I gave ChatGPT’s first suggestion only to save space.
Here are 3 suggestions to improve the essay, along with examples for each:
1. Improve structure and organization: The essay lacks a clear introduction and conclusion. Each paragraph should focus on one main point with supporting evidence.
Example improvement:
Start with a clear thesis statement in the introduction: “While capitalism has its critics, its benefits of economic growth, efficiency, and innovation outweigh its drawbacks.”
Then structure the body paragraphs around these three main points, providing specific examples and evidence for each.
What do you notice about this feedback? Although these are very good suggestions, it does not teach how to do any of them and it does not understand the scope of the writing. Adding more detail to the scope of your writing brings us to point #3.
Thirdly, the feedback is much too vague and offers suggestions that you already know because that is why you are looking for help in improving your writing. I gave more specific instructions, “Give me 3 suggestions on how to make this 150-word essay better and provide examples of your suggestions’ and this is what it gave me. Again, I will only provide its first suggestion.
Here are three suggestions to improve the 150-word essay, along with examples:
1. Improve grammar and spelling: The essay contains several grammatical errors and typos that should be corrected. For example:
Original: “To begin with, decentralization contributes to local economic growth. It allows local governments to have control over the use of their resources and taxes so that they can make projects and help local industries. In addition as local governments fathom The version better than the central government, they can develop local industries based on their features such as agriculture industry and tourism.”
Improved: “To begin with, decentralization contributes to local economic growth. It allows local governments to have control over the use of their resources and taxes, enabling them to initiate projects and support local industries. Additionally, as local governments understand their region better than the central government, they can develop local industries based on specific features such as agriculture and tourism.”
This is the same as suggesting “1. Improve your writing skills.”, which gives you, the student, little direction.
Finally and most importantly, it completely lacks positive reinforcement and motivation (unless you ask it to). Here are three examples of feedback that I offer my students. The feedback only humans can offer is bold.
- A few new words being introduced here, wonderful. The big takeaway from this writing is clear topic sentences for each paragraph. They have to clearly state how that paragraph is connected to the these of protecting individual privacy.
- Two smaller takeaways are a few redundancies that you can see can be omitted to save word count and using phrasal verbs as an option to complex words. Idioms are not very academic so I would steer clear of, sorry, “avoid” them, but 2 and 3 word verbs are great.
- We live this every day but it’s tough to reflect on it and put it down on paper. Really good attempt I’d say. Looking forward to the next writing. Until then…
Three best things about your essay:
- Personal perspective: You’ve shared your own thoughts and opinions, which makes the essay authentic and relatable. This personal touch helps engage readers and makes your arguments more convincing.
- Relevant examples: You’ve provided specific examples to support your points, such as the production of air circulators and the implementation of remote work. These concrete examples strengthen your arguments and make them more tangible for readers.
- Current issues: Your essay touches on timely topics like the pandemic’s impact and work-life balance, which demonstrates awareness of contemporary societal concerns and makes your essay more relevant.
Three best things about your essay:
- Personal perspective: You’ve shared your own thoughts and opinions, which makes the essay authentic and relatable. This personal touch helps engage readers and makes your arguments more convincing.
- Relevant examples: You’ve provided specific examples to support your points, such as the production of air circulators and the implementation of remote work. These concrete examples strengthen your arguments and make them more tangible for readers.
- Current issues: Your essay touches on timely topics like the pandemic’s impact and work-life balance, which demonstrates awareness of contemporary societal concerns and makes your essay more relevant.
I asked AI What are three best things about my essay and motivate me to write more”. This is what it produced.
Motivation to write more:
Your essay shows great potential and a solid foundation for exploring this topic further. You have a natural ability to connect big-picture ideas with real-world examples, which is a valuable skill in essay writing. Your insights on how big companies impact daily life are thought-provoking and could be expanded into a more comprehensive piece.
Consider delving deeper into each of your points, perhaps adding a third reason why big companies positively affect society. You could also explore potential counterarguments and address them, which would make your essay even more robust and well-rounded.
Your writing style is clear and accessible, making complex ideas easy to understand. This is a fantastic starting point, and with more development, you could create an even more compelling and comprehensive essay. Keep nurturing your writing skills – your ability to articulate ideas and support them with relevant examples is a strength that will serve you well in many aspects of life. Keep writing and exploring your ideas!
So, after reading this which would you prefer, a personal writing teacher or an AI proofreader? Give me three months and you will start writing like a 100-level university student guaranteed.
HKKS Education 