Will artificial intelligence kill the five-paragraph essay? To find out, I asked my ninth-grade English teacher.
The five-paragraph essay is a mainstay of high school writing instruction, designed to teach students how to write simple essays and defend them in a methodical, easily graded manner. This is the most basic and rigorous level of literature analysis.
A typical five-paragraph essay requires students to select a simple thesis, usually from a list of prompts, and write a brief introductory paragraph, followed by three paragraphs each listing different supporting evidence, and then a final paragraph – usually Start with, “To sum up….”
Critics argue that the assignment stifles students’ creativity and turns writing into pure drudgery. I tend to agree, and it’s heartbreaking to remember the amount of time I spent writing five-paragraph essays—forcing me to focus on sticking to formulas and restrictive prompts rather than actually analyzing the books I was reading.
But the sudden popularity of large-scale language models such as ChatGPT may overturn this status quo.
“I’m ‘shocked’ by how good OpenAI’s new chat feature is,” said Kevin Bryan, a professor at the University of Toronto. Tweet After ChatGPT was first released. “You can no longer do take-home tests/homework.”
To test this hypothesis, I sat down in front of ChatGPT and gave it a classic freshman English prompt: “Write me an essay of approximately 500 words and five paragraphs discussing the role of Newspeak in controlling the people of Oceania in George.” effect. 1984. Please use MLA format and include 1-2 quotation marks per paragraph.
In response, it spat out a—ahem—six-paragraph, 588-word article.
“In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the ruling party of Oceania uses Newspeak as a powerful tool to control the thoughts and actions of its citizens.“The paper has begun.”Newspeak, a language designed to restrict freedom of speech and thought, was a mechanism by which the Communist Party maintained its authoritarian rule and suppressed dissent. By manipulating language, the Communist Party effectively limits the ability of individuals to express dissent, ultimately consolidating its power over the people.“
Then I sent it to my ninth grade English teacher.
Corey Craft has taught English at the Alabama College of Fine Arts for nine years and now serves as an instructor in the school’s creative writing department. Ten years ago, I first read 1984 For his class.
“I would give this article an intermediate B—85,” he told me. “Is the content okay? Sure. A little superficial… but the point is right.”
Yet he also noted the article’s impressive vocabulary—such as “verbal manipulation” and”Reshaping the historical narrative” – this will set off some alarm bells. “This paper uses some words and concepts that I think would be questionable to the average ninth grader,” Kraft added.
ChatGPT also made another glaring mistake – writing a six-paragraph article, despite my multiple attempts to rewrite the prompt so that it stuck to just five paragraphs.
While the typical ninth-grade cheater may not be smart enough to correct these mistakes—Craft said he sometimes sees plagiarism in which students copy and paste text without changing the font or text color—tools like ChatGPT It’s only a matter of time before these issues come into play.
Much to the chagrin of the five-paragraph essay’s harshest critics (myself included), it seems ChatGPT won’t represent the end of the assignment. While five-paragraph passages are extremely boring, they do serve a simple purpose—they match the ability level of middle-level students, even if it means leaving behind the tiny minority of kids who can barely read in eighth grade and irritating a small group of bookworm.
There are simply no obvious alternatives beyond five paragraphs—and certainly none that are somehow immune to inevitable AI imitation. In a ChatGPT-saturated world, teachers might provide students with handwritten five-paragraph essays for class instead of abandoning the assignment entirely, even if it’s “more painful for the student to complete and more painful for the student.” ” Kraft pointed out.
In short, rather than reinventing writing instruction, educators will find new, less technology-reliant ways to continue doing the same thing.
“It may take some trial and error,” Kraft said, “but that’s part of the fun of the job.”
This article originally appeared in the print edition under the headline “Long live the five-paragraph essay?”
