A Battle of Pencils Against Algorithms: Our In-Class Essays

As you’ve probably noticed, in-class essays have become more and more common in our English classes over the last two years. Their frequency directly correlates with the rise in artificial intelligence, posing a challenge for teachers trying to ensure that all student work is original. In-class essays, often written by hand in an examination booklet, seem to be the solution. They are completed entirely within one 55-minute class period with just a book, a pencil, a prompt and any ideas the student can think of as the clock ticks. Without a computer, the work is surely their own and doesn’t use AI, but is it really encouraging better writing and critical thinking? In trying to prevent AI use, are we sacrificing a process that leads to more authentic and creative ideas?

To be fair, in-class essays do allow for certain benefits. Not only do they prevent the use of AI to generate ideas, but they also encourage quick thinking under pressure, which is an undeniably valuable skill. Whether that be an interview, presentation, AP free-response question or even an everyday conversation, people’s thoughts and ideas are expected to be organized and logical within a short amount of time, which in-class essays reinforce. Additionally, they allow for teachers to have a direct understanding of a student’s writing ability, as they know the work is entirely the student’s without outside assistance.

On the other hand, the time pressures of in-class essays can limit a student’s ability to experiment with ideas and develop more thoughtful writing. With only 55 minutes, students are forced to begin writing before fully understanding what they want to convey. This discourages more unconventional interpretations of a text. Time and revision would allow those risks to develop. At some point, students begin looking more at the clock than the prompt itself. Ironically, in-class essays may force students to sound more robotic, sticking to what they know works instead of pushing ideas further under the pressure of a ticking clock. In an attempt to battle the algorithmic formula of AI, in-class essays might inadvertently cause students to write in a similarly mechanized way. 

Regardless, we have to remember that the purpose of school is to learn. While take-home essays allow for more reflection and revision, the temptation of AI use can destroy opportunities to develop as a writer. When AI is used in place of a student's actual writing on a take-home essay, the writing process, meaningful teacher feedback, and the resulting opportunities for growth are lost.

On the Hill, where an honor code is central to our academic culture, the rise of AI feels like an identity crisis. The effects go far beyond in-class essays. The end-of-year English essay, an opportunity to develop an original argument and refine ideas over a week, has been replaced with an exam.

The whole idea of homework has been complicated by AI’s ability to solve complex problems, and approximate human writing, in seconds. Through this battle of pencils and keyboards, if we’re starting to sound more like robots as we try to defeat them, maybe the greater question is not how we prove our work is our own, but what we value most in human thought.