What About Grammarly?
Let's not beat around the bush.
Dear Friends,
Recent events have given rise to some questions about the use of Grammarly, ChatGPT, and other such tools in writing.
Should writers use Grammarly and other helpful writing and editing AI?
Should students?
How does the use of such AI interact with the nature and purposes of writing?
Read my answers in today’s essay:
“Is It Okay to Use Grammarly?”
But don’t let me have all the fun! Tell us:
Do you have a strong opinion on this matter?
Or are you ambivalent?
Do you use Grammarly or like supports?
Let the conversation begin!
As a high school teacher, I truly struggle with this daily. My school actually pays for Grammarly for all students in an attempt to give them access to timely feedback, yet they still cannot write. Most of my students will not bother to use it. The new standards do not deduct points from student writing as long as errors do not interfere with meaning. Over the last few years I have seen an overwhelming trend of degenerating writing skills. At this point, students do not use any capitalization, consistently misuse pronouns, abandon punctuation, and write in fragments. I teach 185 students daily. One essay assignment takes me literally weeks to grade because it takes so much time to try and give meaningful feedback, and by the time they get it back it has become pointless. Now, they gleefully submit AI generated work, and they do not even understand what it says. In their mind, they “did the work” and should get credit. I have given many lectures warning them that they are becoming intellectual slaves and they don’t even know it. My five year old granddaughter (who is being home schooled) has a better vocabulary than most of them and asks more astute questions. I do not know what the answer is. I’m exhausted.
AI makes me so grumpy. But, even aside from all the issues, I think the primary issue with Grammarly is that bypassing the work needed to edit and become more clear is actually bypassing the THINKING that is needed to gain clarity. Writing is one of the best ways to actually understand something, and there’s something really important that happens in being able to articulate an idea in words. So the idea that we can just outsource that means that we’re also ultimately outsourcing our own thinking. As a mom and a homeschool teacher I really want my kids to have to struggle through that process as students, even if they might eventually use AI in limited capacities.
I would also feel similarly to you re. AI in Substack. A blog I’ve been reading casually for years recently had a few bizarre posts that I’m 99% sure had some of the copy written by AI. It was for a product review which then rubbed me even more the wrong way! I really wanted to ask what was going on, but didn’t. It just makes the ground feel a bit more shaky. Am I talking with a real person, or not? You want to believe that the “voice” you read really is that person, and when that assumption is shaken it’s very unnerving. In my mind it’s really a breach of trust. If you’re going to use AI it needs to be cited you know? But the way things are going I see it much more likely that the assumption be that AI was used, and we’ll have to be explicit in stating that we don’t use it.