Abstract
This chapter responds to the challenges posed by ChatGPT to the teaching of English composition by focusing on the technology’s (current) limitations. Anchoring my discussion in student misconceptions about the quality of ChatGPT’s writing, I demonstrate how the tool struggles with both register and content when asked to give personal responses. A series of vapid reflections on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby serve as a case study. The inability of ChatGPT to emulate human qualities like individuality and subjectivity is a significant weakness, which teachers should exploit to minimise student reliance on generative AI. Although the use of the first-person perspective and the incorporation of personal opinion have long been divisive issues in academic writing, they can function as an antidote to the threat of generative AI. Theoretically and pedagogically, the chapter draws on a synthesis of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Xunzi (荀子), emphasising the importance of individuality in expression and the virtues of practical learning. Copyright © 2026 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.