AI and the Demise of College Writing

Hu's recent article in the New Yorker asks, "What happens after AI destroys college writing?" The article addresses the issue that literature and writing instructors have faced over the past 3 years that the college essay is in demise. According to a survey conducted by the digital education council, 86% of students use AI to complete their studies at university. And that was conducted in 2024. More recent surveys across the US and the UK reveal a greater reliance upon AI by students and instructors who teach writing uh don't need statistics to prove that.

I've taught writing intensive literature courses for the past 7 years and I've noticed a marketked difference between the papers I received in 2020 and those of 2024. But it's about more than just the demise of the college essay. It's the collapse of one of the most enduring competencies to be earned from higher education, the ability to think and to communicate humanely and eloquently within the parameters of one's language. In response to the rise of AI, some educators have doubled down on in-person writing assignments, while others have attempted to integrate AI ethically.

And a few instructors and institutions, some of the larger bigname institutions which are always the most resistant to change, continue to ignore the problem uh or to adequately deal with it. The teaching of college composition needs a change. If English departments and university writing centers don't alter their methods of teaching writing, they will soon become irrelevant. And students are getting away with it.

Uh not because AI writing is so great. I think anyone who regularly reads literature and AI writing can identify AI writing. And I'm not just talking about the Mdash. It's it's the soulless unfounded guff, the profound platitudes, the repetitious parallelisms, and the rich tapestries of bunk that students try to pass off as their introductions, conclusions, and sometimes entire papers.

students are getting away with it because on one hand, the university writing instructors are often the most overworked and underpaid members of the university and they're too busy to chase down and interrogate every suspected user. And on the other hand, universities don't have sufficient measures to hold students accountable. What is needed now is really not punitive measures, but preventative ones. The universities themselves, not just the humanities, will lose their value if they don't.

But college writing isn't ...