Since the advent of computer software capable of writing essays, I have noticed a sharp uptick in the technical quality of my students’ written work. For a long time, responding to such work involved a good deal of correction – grammar, punctuation, spelling, word choices, and the like. Today, this is rarely necessary. Did a machine create the work? It has certainly been proofread by one.

Am I thankful for this seemingly labor-saving turn of affairs? Not really, and the reason is this: Students seem increasingly inclined to regard writing assignments as requirements to be fulfilled, not as invitations to read, reflect, explore, and above all, to essay. The word comes from the French and means to try out, as exemplified by the greatest essayist of all time, Michel de Montaigne.

Montaigne, who had prematurely lost his life’s great conversation partner, La Boetie, understood that writing can be another form of conversation, of considering first one matter and then another from different points of view, attempting not to extract some all-purpose explanation, but to see the world and the human creatures who inhabit it in something approaching our full complexity and beauty.

When Montaigne set words to paper, he was inviting his reader to........

© Psychology Today