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I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

marcusolang.substack.com

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Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#331

Post by gertlex »

dgan wrote: post #241
phantasmish wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obsession with short sentences and generally pushing extreme simplicity of structure and word choice has been terrible for English prose. It’s not been terrible because most people aren’t aided by such guidance (most are) but because the same people who can’t be trusted to wield a quill without the bumper-lanes installed see a sentence longer than ten words, or a semicolon, or god forbid literate and appropriate nuan…

I consider myself fluent in English, I watch technical talks and casual youtubers on English daily, and this is the first time I encounter this word lol. The only "stride" I know relates to the gap betweeb heterogeneous elements in a contiguous array

I wonder if you've heard the expression "hitting your stride".

(native english speaker who was a bookworm as a kid; I admittedly had to ask gemini to recall the general phrase that I had in mind)

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#332

Post by layer8 »

encroach wrote: post #312
komali2 wrote: post #80

> There were unspoken rules, commandments passed down from teacher to student, year after year. The first commandment? Thou shalt begin with a proverb or a powerful opening statement. “Haste makes waste,” we would write, before launching into a tale about rushing to the market and forgetting the money. The second? Thou shalt demonstrate a wide vocabulary. You didn’t just ‘walk’; you ‘strode purposefully’, ‘trudged we…

If you prefer a simpler style, then why did you write "the deeper I got into the world of literature" instead of "as I studied literature more"? Why did you say you were "pushed towards" simpler language instead of "I liked it more"? Why did you say "I feel the pain in my bones" and "drives me insane" instead of "I dislike it"? Why did you say "the big boy SAT words should pop out of the page unaccompanied" instead o…

These actually all mean different things.

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#333

Post by D-Machine »

rukshn wrote: post #28

I had a similar experience. We were talking about a colleague for using ChatGPT in our WhatsApp group chat to sound smart and coming up with interesting points. The talk sounds so mechanical and sounds exactly as ChatGPT. His responses in Zoom Calls were the same mechanical and sounds like AI generated. I even checked one of his responses in WhatsApp if it's AI by asking the Meta AI whether it's AI written, and Meta…

It is harsh to say, but we need to increasingly recognize that if your writing is largely indistinguishable from the (current) output of e.g. ChatGPT on default settings, it doesn't matter if you used ChatGPT or not, your writing is overly verbose, bad, and unpleasant to consume, and something you most certainly need to improve. I.e. your colleague needs to change his style regardless.

This sucks, but it needs to be done in education, and/or at least in areas where good writing and effective communication is considered important. Good grades need to be awarded only to writing that exceeds the quality and/or personality of a chat-bot, because, otherwise, the degree is being awarded to a person who is no more useful than a clumsy tool.

And I don't mean avoiding superficialities like the em-dash: I mean the bland over-verbosity and other systemic tells—or rather, smells—of AI slop.

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#334

Post by AnonymousPlanet »

komali2 wrote: post #80

> There were unspoken rules, commandments passed down from teacher to student, year after year. The first commandment? Thou shalt begin with a proverb or a powerful opening statement. “Haste makes waste,” we would write, before launching into a tale about rushing to the market and forgetting the money. The second? Thou shalt demonstrate a wide vocabulary. You didn’t just ‘walk’; you ‘strode purposefully’, ‘trudged we…

> [...] I'm a native English speaker that studied writing in university [...]

As a native English speaker who studied writing at university, do you think "who" should be used with people while "that" should only be used with things or the other way round. Or should I just not care?

Edit: missing things

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#335

Post by phantasmish »

komali2 wrote: post #315
phantasmish wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"He scrambled up to Helen and asked, 'What are you doing?'" "He kick-flipped up to Helen and asked, 'What are you doing?'" [edit] electric-slid! Pirouetted! Somersaulted!

Maneuvered, marched, slid over to, snuck up on/to, rolled on up to, ambled, thread his way through the crowd to, slithered, slunk. Pimp walked. Danced over to. Hopped over to. Sprinted! Jogged! Charged!

Crunched.

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#336

Post by elliotec »

AnonymousPlanet wrote: post #334
komali2 wrote: post #80

> There were unspoken rules, commandments passed down from teacher to student, year after year. The first commandment? Thou shalt begin with a proverb or a powerful opening statement. “Haste makes waste,” we would write, before launching into a tale about rushing to the market and forgetting the money. The second? Thou shalt demonstrate a wide vocabulary. You didn’t just ‘walk’; you ‘strode purposefully’, ‘trudged we…

> [...] I'm a native English speaker that studied writing in university [...] As a native English speaker who studied writing at university, do you think "who" should be used with people while "that" should only be used with things or the other way round. Or should I just not care? Edit: missing things

You should just not care. Both are acceptable, "that" is a little less formal and probably more common in everyday speech.

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#337

Post by userbinator »

elcapitan wrote: post #9

Ironically, mistakes and idiosyncrasies are becoming a sign of authenticity and trustworthiness, while polish and quality signal the opposite. Earlier today I stumbled upon a blog post that started with a sentence that was obviously written by someone with a slavic background (most writers from other language families create certain grammatical patterns when writing in another language, e.g. German is also quite typi…

with a sentence that was obviously written by someone with a slavic background

Omitting articles? To me, that has always signaled "this will be an interesting and enlightening read, although terse and in need of careful thought." I've found sites from that part of the Internet to be very useful for highly technical and obscure topics.

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#338

Post by jodrellblank »

komali2 wrote: post #321
phantasmish wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd characterise Americans as less pretentious and more straight talking. Various registers representing a huge proportion of US English we see and hear day-to-day are terrible. American “Business English” is notably bad, and is marked by this sort of fake-fancy language. The dialect our cops use is perhaps even worse, but at least most of us don’t have to read or hear it as much as the business variety.

> The dialect our cops use is perhaps even worse, but at least most of us don’t have to read or hear it as much as the business variety. Ugh, and journalists often slip into cop dialect in their articles. It's disgustingly propagandic. Notice that cops never kill or shoot someone, even in situations where they're blatantly in the wrong. It's always, "service weapon was discharged" or "subject was fired upon." Make su…

2005 Hurricane Katrina, news described a black man carrying bread through floodwater as "looting a grocery store" and white people carrying bread through floodwater as "finding bread and soda from a local grocery store".

Image: https://media.snopes.com/2016/09/looting.jpg

Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hurricane-katrina-looters/

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#339

Post by [deleted] »

dgan wrote: post #241
phantasmish wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obsession with short sentences and generally pushing extreme simplicity of structure and word choice has been terrible for English prose. It’s not been terrible because most people aren’t aided by such guidance (most are) but because the same people who can’t be trusted to wield a quill without the bumper-lanes installed see a sentence longer than ten words, or a semicolon, or god forbid literate and appropriate nuan…

I consider myself fluent in English, I watch technical talks and casual youtubers on English daily, and this is the first time I encounter this word lol. The only "stride" I know relates to the gap betweeb heterogeneous elements in a contiguous array

[deleted]

Re: I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me

#340

Post by LtWorf »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #176
psunavy03 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Armies of idiots hunt down em dashes because they're too stupid to understand the proper use of them.

They are probably like me: if punctuation isn't on my keyboard, I don't use it.

⸘WHAT‽
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