Generative AI does not signal the end of student writing. Even that time-honoured (if shop-soiled) form of writing – the “student essay” – might be on the verge of a revival. But only if we take the time to reconsider the history and the real purpose of essay writing.

Essays might never look quite like they have done for the past century or so but, honestly, who would really mourn the passing of the kinds of formulaic thinking that often came with them?

Artificial intelligence can help uni students write essays. But is that such a bad thing?Credit: Getty Images

Why, though, do we get so anxious about uni students not doing their own writing in the age of ubiquitous AI? It is because an essay is not just an indication of whether somebody knows something. Rather, we value the task of writing essays as a way to develop crucial skills in evaluating knowledge and communicating ideas.

From the first notes jotted down in response to a piece of evidence, through analysing other written sources, and then onwards to drafting a plan, and eventually to editing, revising, and finalising a piece of work, the time that all of this takes aligns with the capacity of our brains to dream up ideas, to evaluate them and then try to express them.

Artificial intelligence squashes that time into seconds. Each of these stages can now be done almost instantaneously. In an education system where we give........

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