Draft commentary — a personal view, not an institutional position.
The argument that generative tools have destroyed the essay assumes the essay was reliably measuring what it claimed to measure. In practice, a large share of coursework rewarded a recognisable shape: a competent literature summary delivered in the expected register.
What is actually threatened
What is threatened is the part of assessment that could always be produced without understanding. That is worth saying plainly, because the remedy follows from it. Detection is a treadmill; redesign is not.
Directions that seem to hold
- Assessment tied to data the student generated themselves.
- Method and analysis decisions defended in person, briefly.
- Credit for the reasoning trail, not only the final artefact.
None of this is cheap in staff time, which is the real constraint and the part usually missing from the debate.