Written by: Schuyler Cummings

 

Amidst the unyielding ascent of generative AI, a realm where mere snippets of input can yield sprawling essays, workers across industries – especially writers – are left wondering where they will stand in their careers mere months from now. There’s no doubt the age of AI has dawned and there is no way out of the moral quandary that accompanies it, only through. From university students to field experts, the integration of AI as a fundamental tool in our work is palpable. Yet, even in the thick of the technological wave, we must not overlook the paramount function of writing in every occupation.

 

 Artwork from Literary Hub, AI Generated Art inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

 

Though published in 2014, pre-ChatGPT, Deborah Brandt explores the evolving role of writing in the workplace over the past few decades in her book, The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy. Brandt demonstrates through personal interviews, meticulous research, and an analysis of literacy trends spanning decades that writing as a form of labor has increased alongside advances in technology. The professional field has transitioned from producing products to producing ideas. Thus, writing has become an indispensable skill for nearly every profession because it serves as the optimal medium for communicating ideas (whether through articles, journals, emails, or even tweets!). I originally picked up this book for a Writing Studies class, but it resonated with me so well that it currently sits on the bookshelf on the desk I’m using to write.

 

Brandt investigates how various professional domains utilize writing, such as ghostwriting, writing for work, and political commentary. She expands on the ethical dilemmas present in each field, including the debates surrounding status of authorship. Notably, Brandt discusses Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s critique of political ghostwriters: “If a president has a ghostwriter…who’s the president?” In turn, she challenges readers to ponder Kucinich’s view and reconsider traditional notions of authenticity, representation, and ownership in modern discourses surrounding writing.

 

Keeping all of the above in mind, Brandt shifts to deliberate on the part writing plays in contemporary American education. More often than not, school curriculums place an emphasis on reading as a precursor to writing and teach them as paralleled – not intersecting – subjects in the classroom. From the get-go, parents praise their preschool age children for having read so much as the back of a cereal box. From then on, the reigning adage of “read more to write better” rings in students’ ears for the rest of their academic careers. Supplementally, writing in school is used as a practice for reacting to reading, as opposed to a skill of its own accord. Middle school teachers instruct their pupils to produce response essays and argumentative papers based on their course materials.

 

Brandt argues, however, that a new literacy – one of writing over reading – should be implemented into the American education system. She believes a restructuring of writing studies would better prepare students – particularly university students – for the new role writing plays in the workplace. Far too many engineering students don’t take their first-year writing courses seriously enough. Learning to write for the sake of expressing ideas, to read rhetorically, and to write regardless of societal expectations are the cornerstones of Brandt’s logic. 

 

Overall, the book’s genius comes from Brandt’s ability to really make her readers think. She inspects ethics, politics, history, and education, and invites readers to tinker around with such ideas themselves. Brandt’s anecdotes, research, and reasoning makes one toss and tumble ideas in their head like an introspective discussion. 

 

Upon completing The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy, one might contemplate what Brandt would think of the use of ChatGPT in schools and the workplace today. What would she have to say about what she calls the “residues of authorship” in AI writing? What would her thoughts be on how to instruct teachers of every academic level on how to show students how to use AI technology effectively and productively? For instance, I used ChatGPT to write this blog post, specifically to find better synonyms, restructure odd sentences, and come up with the title (I’m notoriously horrible with titles).   

 

In the end, Brandt’s masterpiece is insightful, thought-provoking, and ever relevant to today’s debates about writing in the workplace and writing with AI. Readers who enjoyed the book can also take a look at Vershawn Ashanti Young’s “Should Writers Use They Own English?” and Shirley Rose’s “All Writers Have More to Learn.”