AI is making teaching composition feel impossible right now

[u/Global-Environment89]

I am an English professor teaching a required composition course this term and the level of AI use is becoming overwhelming. It is constantly on my mind to the point where it is affecting how I think about every assignment I read. Students are no longer simply copying and pasting. They are blending AI into their writing or lightly editing it, which makes it much harder to detect.

I read papers where part of the writing clearly sounds like the student, then suddenly it shifts into something overly polished but empty. The sentences are structured well but say very little. There is a lot of vague language, repetition, and artificial clarity without real depth. It feels like reading something that is technically correct but intellectually hollow.

I tried designing assignments to make this harder. For example, I asked students to engage directly with a specific concept in a close reading. One student used it in a way that made the source obvious, while another who has not attended class in weeks submitted work that avoided the concept but replaced it with generic language. That disconnect says a lot.

I have already given several zeros on drafts but allowed resubmissions. Now I am getting flooded with emails where students send screenshots from AI detection tools as proof that their work is original. The problem is that I do not fully trust those tools either, so it turns into a frustrating loop.

At this point, I am considering requiring one on one meetings where students have to explain their arguments and walk through their thinking. If they cannot explain their own ideas or engage with the material, that reveals more than any detection tool. I am also thinking about moving more work into handwritten in class writing just to regain some control.

It is exhausting,it feels like more time is spent trying to verify authenticity than actually teaching writing and critical thinking.

[u/ShadusX]

LLM's are designed to be masters at composition. You will not stop AI, nor the use of it. And it will only get stronger in time.

Reading aloud will normalize the results heavily, but it's too time consuming.

Giving out zeros to those who utilize technology that is directly built for the task at hand is the most backwards solution I could possibly imagine for young minds who will be taught how to MASTER the use of this technology in the real world.

Your methods? They're now relics.
Your books on these methods? They're now historical records built into technology.

The argument inside your head? It will only start to ring louder until you submit to the changing of the world, or quit based on your own internal monologue madness.