“Just chatGPT it!” has become a common joke in my friend group as of late. Long essay that you forgot about? Just chatGPT it! Free-response question on your quiz you forgot to study for? Just chatGPT it! Email due to your research coordinator that you may or may not have been putting off for a few weeks? Just chatGPT it!
I’m starting to hate this joke.
Concerns come when people ask ChatGPT to write an entire essay/script/work, copy/paste that essay into their own document, and edit some parts to their liking. Within minutes they have “their own” essay. This is problematic because it’s plagiarism. And if you want to debate that you can’t plagiarize an AI, then it’s at least not a paper that you have written. It gets an assignment done earlier, but the student hasn’t learned anything, hasn’t really written anything. They lose the essential writing skills that will benefit them in the future.
Catherine Tong’s “Queer Life at Berkeley: Joy, Violence, and Resistance” is a powerful evaluation of UC Berkeley’s student-led queer culture, including ongoing challenges —relevant not just to Berkeley students but to queer studies more broadly — such as students feeling compelled to come out when they don’t want to. This is a selection from the essay, written for Prof. Seth Holmes’s Fall 2022 Art of Writing class, “Inequality and the Body: Health, Medicine, Society and Environment.”
Emma Lalor’s ambitious “Movement, Motivation & Medicine: an ethnographic look into pre-med experiences from immigrant students in California,” uses the medium of the graphic novel to create a powerful visual-verbal ethnography of challenges to immigrant students that often go unnoticed or unheard. Below are two chapters from the piece, which was written for Prof. Seth Holmes’s Fall 2022 Art of Writing class, “Inequality and the Body: Health, Medicine, Society and Environment.”
Lauren Szeto’s “Morning Sun Ekphrasis,” a poetic translation and accompanying critical reflection, shows how creative and critical writing, when joined together, can offer profound insights into the works we study. The essay was written for Prof. Eve Sweetser’s Fall 2022 Art of Writing class, “Writing as Framing.”
Sakeena Baxamusa’s “Homelessness and Mental Health Interventions in California” shows how combining direct, individual ethnographic study with deep and careful research can produce a powerful intervention. The essay was written for Prof. Seth Holmes’s Fall 2022 Art of Writing class, “Inequality and the Body: Health, Medicine, Society and Environment.”
Caitlyn Jordan, a senior English major double-minoring in human rights and creative writing, won the 2019 Art of Writing essay… Continue reading Undergraduate Caitlyn Jordan Wins 2019 Art of Writing Prize
Leo Elyon, a sophomore double-major in genetics & plant biology and Slavic languages & literatures, won the 2018 Art of… Continue reading Undergraduate Leo Elyon Awarded 2018 Art of Writing Prize
The Inaugural Art of Writing Undergraduate Essay Contest was held in Spring 2016. Because it is a central principle of… Continue reading Undergraduate Taj Hittenberger Awarded 2016 Art of Writing Prize
