Modern Writers' AI Syndrome

It's a striking thing I've noticed watching my students work on their US college application essays this year. In sharp contrast to previous years, this generation wants to produce the finest, final version on their very first draft. They expect not to need a second draft, a third, a fourth, or a fifth — they want to leap straight to the final draft and make it perfect on the first attempt. I'd call this the ChatGPT syndrome, or the AI syndrome: just as AI-generated text appears instantly polished, this generation believes they too can produce a super-perfect essay in one go. Looking back at the earlier days - roughly since 2001 to 2018, 2019, maybe 2020 - students understood they had to go draft after draft after draft until they arrived at something close to a perfect score, a perfect essay. Even then, there was no such thing as perfection; we simply reached a point where perfecting further made no sense because the deadline was too close. 

So I want to tell my students plainly: don't chase the super-perfect essay from the start. There is no such thing as perfection. Instead, start writing draft after draft. Fill your pages with weak drafts, bad drafts, early drafts, pointless drafts, even useless drafts - but drafts nonetheless. Don't reach for perfection on attempt one.

And I'll say this knowing it may invite criticism, even resentment: until a student has produced at least three drafts, I won't properly look into the essay, meaning I won't invest real time in it. I'll give it a cursory glance, but I won't read it in the true sense of the word "read." So please take note. Thank you.