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ackermann t1_j9nw9dd wrote

> The end goal has never been to write an essay, it’s just to convey information. Far more important than the essay itself is information being conveyed

As someone who loathed writing essays/papers for school… if this is true, couldn’t we just write bullet points, a bulleted list?
There’s so much extra time needed, to check grammar, ensure sentences flow together nicely, good transitions between paragraphs, don’t use the same transition words every time, satisfying conclusion and introduction, etc etc.

Could save so much time, if the essay itself isn’t really the point anyway (outside of english/writing class).
Especially for those of us who aren’t gifted writers. So many late nights, all nighters in college finishing starting 5 or 10 page papers the day before they’re due.

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khamelean t1_j9nwppf wrote

Correct. Essays are a tradition, not a necessity.

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ackermann t1_j9ny70r wrote

Then for the sake of people like me, I hope that that tradition goes away. I’d probably rather have a root canal or wisdom teeth out, than face an 8 page paper due in 12 hours, ever again.
(Except for writing classes, where the essay itself really is the point, of course)

Too late for me, but I’d be happy if future generations don’t have to go through that, while still learning.

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ItsAConspiracy t1_j9okjp5 wrote

People in businesses will write out some bullet points and an AI will expand them into essays.

On the other end, people without the time to read much will have an AI summarize those essays in bullet points.

After a half century or so, everyone will get it through their thick heads that this is stupidly inefficient and just exchange the bullet points.

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anon10122333 t1_ja11uj3 wrote

Getting the AI to turn the essay into a podcast would be handy though.

>After a half century or so, everyone will get it through their thick heads that this is stupidly inefficient and just exchange the bullet points.

Naah, bullet point miss out on the language nuances that full text communicates, even in business

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ItsAConspiracy t1_ja44alv wrote

Yes, but people in business tend to get a lot of emails, and if most of them resort to text summarization then the nuance is lost anyway. And it's mostly lost if the recipient skims.

Also, many senders of email aren't necessarily great communicators conveying valuable nuance anyway.

Ultimately, it's a cost-benefit calculation: get occasionally-valuable nuance on a bunch of emails, or keep emails simple and do something else that might be more valuable?

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