Writing is not a one-day affair. Don’t let AI convince you otherwise.

“What do you do with students who use AI to write?”

Mom casually replied, “I retired 5 years ago.”

My mother is a retired professor in environmental sciences. She retired 5 years before the public release of CHAT GPT. In her entire teaching career (pre-chat gpt) she has seen students copy paste work, plagiarize, and turn in horribly written assignments.

“What do you do with these students then? Mark down points? Penalize?”

“No, I call them in one by one. And make them rewrite. I guide them.”

“Why don’t you just send them to a writing course as “punishment”.

“No- that won’t work. Because writing is not a one-day affair.”

As we are having this conversation, a song with no melody chimes in my inner monologue.(1)

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;”

AI writing tools have flooded the market selling claims to help you write better, faster, more efficiently. To help you “improve” instantly. To churn out content, essays, articles, and stories. You name it- it’s all in a days work.

AI-assisted writing has become the new “in thing.” Who has time to re-learn to write? Priority goes to speed, efficiency, and delivery. Does the process on how the writing gets done matter?

If students (and professionals) are turning to AI for help, is it because they do not have a human leading them to ways where they truly can improve? No human to take out hours in their day, weeks in their months, months in their year, years in their….you get the picture. Is there time to re-learn, re-build, re-write. Is the student willing to take this writing route? Is the teacher willing to teach?

“How did you guide all the students. There are just too many”

Mom sighed heavily. “It takes time- time which not everyone is willing to take.”

The inner monologue continues.

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

…… ”

Which road will you take?

Liyana Azman is a PHD Candidate in AI Law, keeps stumbling upon diverged roads, has chosen one and thinks: …do I turn back?

Footnote

(1) The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken