Using tarot cards: The fool – ? – The Magician – Justice
Writing as a process needs time. We cannot expect the students to complete a piece of writing in a session. But many courses do not allow time for that. In English language courses, very few sessions are allocated for writing, and it is often assigned as a homework with the teacher doing the editing. So to be able to teach writing as a process, the teacher needs the liberty to design their own course. This involves negotiation with the school or language center, and maybe also with the students or their parents.
People want to write well but they underestimate the time it takes to actually learn to write well. They are resistant to the idea that writing is a process. Many working adults I’ve taught expect to get templates to follow instead of exploring what they actually want to write. Maybe that’s the only writing they need for work. They see writing as a tool to serve an end. Seeing it as an exploration is considered to be quite idealistic and may not fit their purposes of learning to write in the first place.
This is not to say that writing as a process is a wrong idea – I’m working as a content writer so I also follow this process and I know its importance. But we have to take into account the needs and constraints of the learners, so that we can set reasonable expectations.
Writing as a process matters mostly to people who have to take writing seriously in some ways. Maybe they have to master written communication for their professional roles. Maybe they want to do well in written assignments which make up the bulk of their training. I haven’t got the luck to meet students to want to write because they love writing, especially among non-native users.
A new challenge in teaching writing as a process is the rise of AI. AI can do the prewriting and editing steps pretty well (not saying that using AI is good for your prewriting, but it can do a better task than many of us). AI can also help in drafting. And students love the fact that now maybe they don’t even have to learn to write at all. They just need to learn to command the AI to do it for them.
How do we defend writing as a process in the age of AI? I haven’t got a good answer to that. We are inherently lazy – if we can use a tool to do a task for us, why not? We have done it with the calculator, the washing machine, the vacuum, so I don’t see why we won’t resort to AI when we need to get unwanted writing tasks done. I’ve seen many people exhibiting self-defeating behaviours such as using AI to write for them while still wanting to write well, or even claiming AI-written texts as their own writings with no shame.
My question is: how do we defend the relevance of writing as a process? This reminds me of learning to appreciate the value of handicraft in the age of mass manufacturing. We are entering the age of mass AI-written content. How do we motivate students to go through the sometimes arduous process of writing when, in real life, they often don’t have to do it anymore?
Maybe writing should be made deeply personal and therapeutic, instead of fulfilling an imminent and pragmatic goal, so that the students will see the point of learning to write as a process.