How to Think About Writing in the Age of AIBy John WarnerNarrated by Eric Jason Martin
Length7h 45m
About this audiobook
A veteran writing teacher makes a strong argument that writing is a form of thinking and feeling and shows why it can’t be replaced by AI
In the age of artificial intelligence, drafting an essay is as simple as typing a prompt and pressing enter. What does this mean for the art of writing? According to longtime writing teacher John Warner: not very much.
More Than Words argues that generative AI programs like ChatGPT not only can kill the student essay but should, since these assignments don’t challenge students to do the real work of writing. To Warner, writing is thinking—discovering your ideas while trying to capture them on a page—and feeling—grappling with what it fundamentally means to be human.
The fact that we ask students to complete so many assignments that a machine could do is a sign that something has gone very wrong with writing instruction. More Than Words calls for us to use AI as an opportunity to reckon with how we work with words—and how all of us should rethink our relationship with writing.
John Warner is the
managing editor of McSweeney’s Internet
Tendency. His book My First Presidentiary
(with Kevin Guilfoile) was a #1 Washington
Post bestseller. John is also the editor of three volumes of material
culled from the website Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans, Mountain Man
Dance Moves, The McSweeney’s Book of Lists, and The McSweeney’s Joke Book of
Book Jokes. Warner teaches at Clemson University in South Carolina and is a
consulting editor to the South Carolina Review.View all by John Warner
