Introduction

The rise of AI as a tool in learning has prompted some teachers to begin asking their students to think about the broader implications of platforms like Chat-GPT on the educative experience.  This often comes in the form of writing argumentative essays in which the student has to pick a side in the great AI debate (for example, is it good for one’s writing?  Is it bad?).  In this tutorial, we’ll help you write an essay on why using Chat-GPT for writing your college essays is not smart.

Potential Topics

1. Academic Integrity and the Misuse of AI in Essay Writing
2. The Importance of Developing Personal Writing Skills
3. The Limitations of AI in Capturing the Human Voice:  What Critical Thought Sounds Like in Essays
4. Plagiarism Detection and the Rise of AI-Written Texts

Alternate Titles

1. Beyond the AI Hype: Why Chat-GPT Isn’t Your Academic Best Friend
2. The Hidden Costs of AI-Assisted Essay Writing in College
3. Chat-GPT for Essays? A Shortcut That Costs More Than You Think
4. Why You Should Think Twice before Using Chat-GPT to Write Your College Essay

Essay Outline

I.  Introduction

A.  Prevalence of Chat-GPT and AI in current discourse

B.  Reasons against using AI for college essay writing

II.  Academic Dishonesty

A.  Definition and consequences of academic dishonesty

B.  AI writing and academic integrity

C.  Risks of using AI in academic settings

III. The Necessity of Personal Writing Skills

A.  The learning process in academic writing

B.  Limitations of AI in skill development

C.  The role of in-class writing assignments

IV.  Plagiarism Detection and AI-Written Documents

A.  Advances in plagiarism detection technology

B.  AI writing patterns and detection

C.  Long-term consequences of being caught

V.  Inadequacies of AI in Essay Writing

A.  Limitations in language and style

B.  Lack of depth and critical thinking in AI writing

C.  Inaccuracies and outdated information in AI-generated content

VI.  The Superiority of Model Essay Examples

A.  Benefits of using essay examples

B.  Learning from professional writing

C.  Preparing for in-class assignments with examples

VII. Conclusion

A.  Summary of risks associated with using Chat-GPT for essays

B.  Emphasis on learning and personal growth in writing

C.  Final recommendations for academic writing success

Essay Example

Abstract

This paper discusses the serious risks and limitations that come with using Chat-GPT and similar AI tools for writing college essays. It looks at issues of academic dishonesty, the importance of developing personal writing skills, the limitations of AI in capturing the nuances of human thought and expression, and the advancements in plagiarism detection technology. The essay also focuses on the inadequacies of AI in terms of language use, critical thinking, and accuracy, and contrasts these with the benefits of using model essay examples as learning tools. Overall, it emphasizes the importance of personal effort and integrity in academic writing, and calls for the use of professional essay examples as a superior alternative to AI-generated content.

Main Essay Title

“Why You Should Think Twice before Using Chat-GPT to Write Your College Essay”

Essay Introduction

Chat-GPT seems to be everywhere these days:  people are talking about it on Twitter, giving demos on YouTube, and using it at work.  When it comes to writing your college essays, however, don’t be fooled into thinking Chat-GPT and the assortment of other AI platforms out there will help you pass with flying colors.  The fact is that these AI tools are not everything the hype promoters make them out to be.  In this article, we’ll discuss a few reasons why you should not rely on Chat-GPT for your essay writing needs.

Academic Dishonesty

First up is the question of honesty.  If you hand in a paper written by someone else, it’s called academic dishonesty.  Schools are serious about this and teachers are trained to be on the lookout for violations of this core principle academic integrity.  When a student tries to pass off someone else’s work as his or her own, it usually gets flagged immediately.  Teachers can tell, and students can flunk the assignment or the course, or even be bounced out of school altogether.  In short, it’s just not worth the risk.

And the same goes for using AI to write your paper:  AI like Chat-GPT has a very specific idiom and every teacher in every school now knows exactly what that idiom looks like.  If you were hoping to coast through college using AI to write your essays, you should seriously think again because your work will be flagged immediately and your college career could end as soon as it begins.  Colleges do not tolerate any form of academic dishonesty—and turning in an AI tool’s work as though it were your own is certainly a violation of standard academic writing policy.  You’re better off writing it on your own.  Trust us:  we are very familiar with what goes on behind the scenes of academia.

You Need to Learn to Write on Your Own

Another big reason it’s just not smart to use Chat-GPT for writing your college essays is that you really do need to learn how to write on your own.  When you use Chat-GPT, you’re not learning how to write, since the AI is doing all the work for you.  This is especially bad when it comes to in-class writing assignments.  In those situations, there’s just no way of faking your way out of it.  Your inability to write will be exposed and your grades are going to suffer as a result.  More and more teachers are actually relying on in-class writing assignments as a way to counter the trend in over-reliance on AI among students.

That means you need to learn to write your essays and you need to learn it well.  One way to do this is to practice.  And, just like an apprentice in a shop will learn by watching the best, a writer like you can become a master by working with essay pros who specialize in creating model essays.  Essay models are actually great tools in helping students learn to write on their own and a lot of teachers recognize their helpful nature.  That’s why in so many writing classes students engage with essay models on a daily basis.

Plagiarism Detection Now Detects AI-Written Documents

Tools like Turnitin are doubling down on detection software in the wake of Chat-GPT’s rise to prominence.  They’ve developed the ability to detect not only when something is copied and pasted from the Web into your document but also to detect when something is written by AI.  It’s actually not hard to do since AI tools compose using a very easy-to-spot manner of writing.  The AI composition formula is very generic and any seasoned eye can detect it right away—which means programmers can easily develop algorithms to spot it, too.  And that’s just what has happened with Turnitin.  The company has created a set of algos that will immediately detect when something has been generated by AI with a very high degree of accuracy.  And once that happens, if it’s your paper that has been red-flagged it’s your reputation that’s going to take a big hit.  In fact, it’s the kind of thing that can follow and haunt you your whole life—especially if it leads to your expulsion from school.  That kind of thing does not look good to future employers who want to know that they are hiring someone with a track record of honesty and integrity.  So don’t take the risk.  Don’t gamble away your potential future.

In Case You Needed Any More Reasons…

AI tools like Chat-GPT are not always great with spelling, punctuation, and basic grammar.  This means they are not even really all that helpful if you are just looking for some basic support in terms of how your essay might look.  First of all, the writing is very generic, formulaic, shallow, and broad.  Teachers don’t want fluff or superficial statements; they want specifics, details, signs of intelligent life and critical thought.  That’s not what you’re going to find with AI, and it shows in the fact that these tools can’t even get the grammar right 100% of the time.

But the fact that AI-written essays tend to be dull, brief, generalized, and stilted means they are always missing the human element, the human touch, the note of emotion one finds in an essay composed by a real person.  People act and think and, yes, write in such a unique way that no computer on earth can duplicate that level of complexity, that human style, that feeling or soul or artistic nuance.

Plus, if you’re relying on Chat-GPT for research, you shouldn’t.  It’s just as capable of making up information as it is of coming up with legitimate data.  Plus, if you need up-to-date facts, you can forget it:  data for Chat-GPT only goes up to April 2023 (as of this essay post date), so it won’t have any information on current events (like the Israel / Hamas / Palestinian conflict).

Nor are its citations styles up-to-date.  Its use of MLA and APA citation formats are never 100% correct, and for that reason if you turn in something taken straight from Chat-GPT it could lead to plagiarism.  The bulk of AI’s data comes from what it has consumed on the Web—and it does not cite all its sources, even if it does spit out writing that closely resembles its sources.  Schools don’t accept that kind of writing without proper in-text referencing—and that’s why it could land you with a plagiarism flag.

In short, AI is not infallible.  It’s prone to all sorts of errors, and it can get users who rely on it into a lot of hot water at their schools.  If you’re a student in need of help with your essay, there are much better and much safer ways to get that help.  We’re one of them.

Why Model Essay Examples are Far Superior

Essay examples are better because they serve as a template, a guideline, and a reference by which you learn how to do it instead of having it done for you.

First of all, model essays can give you a template for structure and format.  They show you how to organize an introduction, how to frame an argument, how to craft a thesis, how to develop body paragraphs, and how to write a conclusion effectively.  They can be tailored to your exact writing and research needs, and they can give you far more in terms of illustration than any output derived from AI can do.  The essay model is particularly useful for novice writers or any who might be unfamiliar with a specific essay type, like argumentative, descriptive, research, or narrative essays.  With an essay example, students can see directly how to logically organize their thoughts and present them in a coherent manner.

Plus, different types of essays require different styles and tones of writing.  For example, a persuasive essay may have a more assertive tone compared to a narrative essay, which might be more reflective and personal.  Essay examples illustrate these variations, which is what really helps student figure out how to adapt their writing style according to the essay’s purpose and audience.  AI writing is simply not capable of this nuance to any convincing degree.

Good essay examples can also serve as a reference for appropriate language usage and vocabulary.  They help students see how to use domain-specific vocabulary, what kind of transition words work in a given situation, and what varied sentence structures can look like.  Chat-GPT has a very limited sense of sentence structure and variation.  Everything it spits out is always of the same, monotonous construction and artifice.  Professionally written essay models, on the other hand, are especially beneficial for those who are working to improve their language skills or expand their vocabulary in their writing.

Not to mention that, sometimes, the hardest part of writing an essay is simply getting started.  Essay examples can provide inspiration and ideas for topics, thesis statements, and approaches to the subject matter.  They can spark the creativity you need to overcome a bit of writer’s block.

Essay model examples can also get you ready for your in-class writing assignments, which are now being given to see if the style of writing provided by student matches what the teaching is receiving at other times in the course.  If you aren’t able to match content for content, alarms are going to go off.  Thus, the best way to make sure your writing is consistent and consistently good is to become a good writer with the help of essay examples.

They can also set a benchmark for what constitutes a good essay. Essay examples help students gauge the quality of their own work and understand the standards they should aspire to meet.  An apprentice in an office doesn’t know what he should strive to achieve until it is shown to him.  An amateur hockey player doesn’t know what it takes to reach the pros until he spends some time watching them and playing with them.  The same goes for writing.  If you want to become a good writer and get good grades in college, spend some time with the writing pros who know how to create perfect essay examples.

In fact, analyzing essay examples can be a valuable learning experience. Students can compare their own critiqued essays with models to see how common mistakes occurred and what should have been done instead.

Essay Conclusion

Chat-GPT and AI tools might pretend to help students with their essay writing—but the fact is students need to learn how to write on their own.  And the best way to do that is to get help from professionally written essay examples.  Don’t risk your college career and future on AI-written text.  Take control of your own destiny, and learn the ropes from the pros.

Works Cited / Bibliography

Carter, R. (2012). Vocabulary: Applied linguistic perspectives. Routledge.

Dickinson, H., & Smith, C. (2023). What roles might automation play in the future of public administration journal peer review processes?. Australian Journal of Public Administration.  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-8500.12611

Liu, Y., Zhang, Z., Zhang, W., Yue, S., Zhao, X., Cheng, X., … & Hu, H. (2023). ArguGPT: evaluating, understanding and identifying argumentative essays generated by GPT models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.07666.  2304.07666.pdf (arxiv.org)

Tardy, C. M. (2019). Is the five-paragraph essay a genre. Changing practices for the L2 writing  classroom: Moving beyond the five-paragraph essay, 24-41.

Conclusion

This tutorial has given you a good example of how you can write an argumentative essay on the topic of AI and the educative experience.  Our essay example argues that relying on Chat-GPT for college essay writing is a risky and ultimately unwise decision.  We gave you potential topics to explore, alternate titles, a detailed outline, and an essay model that puts it all together in a convincing fashion.  For more great ideas, be sure to check out our other articles as well!