this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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And yet being able to shows that a student can follow simple.instructions, review formatting and their own output, and not need to consult a slop machine that's contributing to techbro oligarchy and environmental destruction.
Why are we concerned about university students' ability to follow simple instructions? Was that not taught and tested at some point during the 13 years of public school they had to complete to be here?
If you want to follow instructions, enlist in the army and go to boot camp. If you want to think for yourself, go to college. Or so I was told.
Essay writing is supposed to be an exercise in research; the critical skills are supposed to be finding sources for information, validating their credibility, and drawing supportable conclusions. That takes critical thinking and logic skills. Which is not part of the curriculum. Go take a college English class, turn in an essay, get your grade back, your teacher will have graded you on punctuation, spelling, grammar, MLA formatting. Name of the periodical should be in italics, not underlined -5 pts.
And...I get it. It's harder to teach critical thinking. It's WAY harder to grade critical thinking. So they don't try; they give tests designed to test rote memorization and essays that if we're honest are busywork, assigned by English majors who have no other career prospects.
I could also go into how defining "credible scientific research" as "rigidly formatted per this published style guide" is a recipe for manufacturing bullshit; you want people to believe the Earth is flat? Write about it in MLA.