A new study from the University of East Anglia (UEA) has put ChatGPT’s writing skills under the test, and while the AI might ace grammar and structure, it’s still not quite ready to outwrite real students.
The study, published in Written Communication, compared 145 essays written by university students with an equal number generated by ChatGPT. The results were clear: AI writes clean, coherent text, but it lacks the personal spark that human writers naturally bring to the page.
AI essays lack the human touch
The research, led by Professor Ken Hyland from UEA’s School of Education and Lifelong Learning, set out to explore how closely ChatGPT can mimic real academic writing. The focus wasn’t just on grammar or organization, it was on something deeper: connection.
“We were particularly interested in looking at what we called ‘engagement markers,’ like questions and personal commentary,” Hyland explained.
In other words, the researchers were analyzing whether AI could write in a way that feels like a conversation rather than a lecture. It couldn’t. Not yet, at least.
What students still do better
According to the study, human-written essays consistently included rhetorical questions, side comments, direct appeals to the reader, and clear points of view. These techniques, often subtle, help the writer build a relationship with the reader and present arguments that feel authentic and persuasive.
ChatGPT, by contrast, stuck more rigidly to textbook academic structure. While the essays were impressively polished, they came off as distant and neutral, missing the “voice” that defines good writing.
“They were less engaging, less persuasive, and there was no strong perspective,” Hyland said. “That’s because AI is trained to mimic language patterns—not human emotion or opinion.”
Still a tool—not a threat
Despite the limitations, the study doesn’t frame ChatGPT as a threat to education. In fact, the researchers argue it could become a powerful teaching aid.
“Since its release, ChatGPT has caused a lot of anxiety among teachers,” Hyland noted. “But we’re not just teaching students how to write—we’re teaching them how to think. And that’s something no AI can do.”
AI may write like a pro, but it doesn’t think like one. And in a world full of content, thought still matters.
The research was a collaboration between UEA and Professor Kevin Jiang of Jilin University, China.
