ChatGPT is a large language model trained by OpenAI. It is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that is designed to generate text based on input from a user. ChatGPT can be used to generate text on a wide range of topics, and it can be customized and fine-tuned to produce text in a specific style or on a specific topic.
How Can the ChatGPT AI Help Instructors Teach Essay Writing
1. ChatGPT can generate text on a given topic, providing students with a starting point for their essays and helping them to develop their ideas.
To generate text on a given topic, students or instructors can input a prompt or topic into ChatGPT and ask it to generate text on the topic. For example, if the prompt is “Write an essay about the importance of education,” ChatGPT might generate the following text:
“Education is important for many reasons. It helps us to develop the skills and knowledge we need to succeed in the world, and it provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. Education also plays a crucial role in promoting social equality and combating poverty and inequality. Without education, individuals and societies are unable to reach their full potential.”
This generated text can then be used by students as a starting point for their own essays, providing them with a foundation to build upon and develop their own ideas. By using ChatGPT in this way, instructors can help students to get started on their essays and overcome any initial barriers to writing.
2. ChatGPT can provide feedback and suggestions for improvement on students’ essays, helping them to expand upon their ideas and improve their writing.
To provide feedback and suggestions for improvement on students’ essays, instructors or students can input the essay into ChatGPT and ask it to generate suggestions for improvement or additions. For example, if a student has written an essay about the importance of education, they could input their essay into ChatGPT and ask for suggestions for improvement. ChatGPT might generate text such as:
“One way to further develop your argument is to provide specific examples of how education has helped individuals and societies to succeed and overcome challenges. You could also consider discussing the role of education in promoting social justice and equality. Additionally, you might want to address any potential criticisms of the importance of education, such as the argument that some people are successful without formal education.”
By using ChatGPT in this way, instructors can help students to expand upon their ideas and improve their writing by incorporating new perspectives or ideas from the tool. This can help students to develop their writing skills and become more confident and effective writers.
3. ChatGPT can be used to teach students about the conventions of academic writing, such as using appropriate language, citing sources, and formatting their essays according to a specific style guide.
To teach students about the conventions of academic writing, instructors can use ChatGPT to generate examples of well-written essays that follow the conventions of academic writing. These examples can then be used as models for students to follow when writing their own essays.
For example, instructors can input a prompt or topic into ChatGPT and ask it to generate a well-written essay on the topic, using appropriate language and citing sources according to a specific style guide. The generated text can then be used as an example for students to follow when writing their own essays.
In addition to providing examples, instructors can also use ChatGPT to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement on students’ essays. By inputting their writing into the tool, students can receive suggestions for how to use appropriate language and cite their sources properly. This can help students to learn and apply the conventions of academic writing in their own writing.
4. ChatGPT can generate examples of well-written essays, providing students with models to follow when writing their own essays.
To generate examples of well-written essays, instructors can input a prompt or topic into ChatGPT and ask it to generate a well-written essay on the topic. ChatGPT will then generate text that follows the conventions of academic writing, such as using appropriate language, citing sources, and formatting the essay according to a specific style guide.
For example, if the prompt is “Write an essay about the importance of education,” ChatGPT might generate the following text:
“Education is a fundamental human right and a crucial factor in the development of individuals and societies. It helps us to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values we need to succeed in the world and to participate fully in society. Education also plays a key role in promoting social justice and combating poverty and inequality.
Despite its many benefits, access to education is not universal. In many parts of the world, millions of children, particularly girls, are denied their right to education due to poverty, discrimination, and conflict. This is a grave injustice that must be addressed if we are to achieve a more equitable and prosperous world.
In conclusion, education is essential for individual and societal development. We must ensure that all individuals have access to quality education in order to promote social justice and equality, and to enable individuals and societies to reach their full potential. (Smith, 2019)”
This generated text can then be used by students as a model for their own writing, providing them with an example of a well-written essay that follows the conventions of academic writing. By using ChatGPT in this way, instructors can help students to learn and apply the conventions of academic writing in their own writing.
5. ChatGPT can be used to facilitate collaborative writing exercises, allowing students to work together and share ideas with one another.
To facilitate collaborative writing exercises, instructors can use ChatGPT to generate text on a given topic, and then have students work together to develop and expand upon the ideas generated by the tool. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as by having students work in small groups to brainstorm and outline their ideas, or by having them take turns inputting text into ChatGPT and incorporating the generated suggestions into their writing.
For example, if the prompt is “Write an essay about the importance of education,” instructors could have students input the prompt into ChatGPT and generate a few sentences or paragraphs on the topic. The students could then work together to develop their ideas and outline their essay, using the generated text as a starting point.
Alternatively, instructors could have students take turns inputting their own writing into ChatGPT and incorporating the generated suggestions into their writing. This could be done in a collaborative setting, where students work together to improve each other’s writing and incorporate new ideas from ChatGPT.
Overall, using ChatGPT to facilitate collaborative writing exercises can help students to work together, share ideas, and improve their writing. By using the tool in this way, instructors can create a more interactive and engaging learning environment and help students to become more effective and confident writers.
How can Instructors Prevent Students from Using ChatGPT to Write Essays
1. Instructors can require students to write their essays in a way that makes it difficult for ChatGPT to generate coherent text. For example, instructors can ask students to write their essays in the first person, or to use a specific structure or format that ChatGPT would not be able to easily replicate. This can make it difficult for ChatGPT to generate essays that sound natural and are free of errors.
2. Instructors can use plagiarism detection software to check for essays that have been generated by ChatGPT or other AI tools. These software programs are designed to identify essays that have been copied from other sources or generated by artificial intelligence, and can alert instructors to any essays that have been written by ChatGPT.
3. Instructors can educate their students on the importance of writing original essays and the consequences of using AI tools to write their assignments. By making students aware of the risks and consequences of using ChatGPT to write their essays, instructors can help to discourage students from using the tool in this way.
4. Requiring students to submit rough drafts or outlines of their essays for review and feedback. By requiring students to submit their work at various stages of the writing process, instructors can help students to develop their ideas and ensure that their essays are original and well-written.
5. Encouraging students to discuss their ideas and writing with their peers and instructors. By fostering an environment of collaboration and communication, instructors can help students to develop their own ideas and writing, and to avoid the temptation to use ChatGPT or other tools to produce their essays.
*NOTE: Until this point, this entire article was written by ChatGPT. All I did was give it the different prompts (questions) to get the responses presented here. Interestingly, a couple of ChatGPT’s suggestions on how to prevent students from using ChatGPT to write essays weren’t valid. I asked ChatGPT to write a narrative essay in the first person on the topic of getting into college. It was a pretty good, coherent essay that passed four different plagiarism software checkers. The only line it detected as possible plagiarism was the common line of “It was the best decision I ever made.”
I did not mean to deceive anyone into thinking that I wrote this entire article, I just wanted you to experience what this new AI (ChatGPT) is capable of. I fully believe that this new system is here to stay. We as academics need to see and realize that students need to learn how to properly use this as a tool and aid, not as a crutch. All still need to learn the fundamentals of writing just like students should learn the fundamentals of numbers/math before using a calculator. Yet now it is also important to learn how to use AI as part of the process of writing (how to properly prompt, ask questions, verify, and cite AI). We all need to continually develop our own and students’ AI Literacy in general in order to stay relevant and competitive in the new realities of our times.
ChatGPT is currently free for anyone to use at https://chat.openai.com/chat. I highly recommend you start to become familiar with it, your students most likely already have.
I tried using chat GBT to write several essays. The results were well organized and coherent but very unsophisticated, about what one might expect from a competent high school student. For example, one of them started with “In today’s world. “All of the essays took the same form, starting with a statement of the topic and ending with “In conclusion. . .” As a former college professor, I wouldn’t give any of these essays an A, probably a B-. I think if I were assigning an essay to my students, I would ask chat GPT to produce an essay so that I could compare that with what I got from students whom I suspected of using chat GPT.
It is interesting to see how far we have come in such a short period. We now have the GPT4 language model (as well as great competition from Google and others) that are much improved. Additionally, the use of better prompts will generate greater essays. Students must still develop basic skills mastery in order to understand what a good essay looks like, but the use of AI can be a great help in all aspects of learning.