Comparative analysis of the rhetorical structure of argumentative answer texts produced by entrance exam candidates and by ChatGPT
Abstract
Large computational language models, such as ChatGPT, have demonstrated a high capacity to process and generate texts with a high degree of communicative coherence, making their application possible in the most different areas of knowledge. Given this new field to be explored, in this work, we intend to compare the rhetorical structure of fifteen texts of the argumentative answer genre produced by candidates for the entrance exam at the State University of Maringá with the rhetorical structure of fifteen texts of the same genre produced by ChatGPT from the same instructions and the same supporting texts. The theoretical-methodological apparatus used is the Rhetorical Structure Theory, a descriptive theory that studies text organization by means of the implicit relations that are held between parts of the text. Regarding the results, it was found that ChatGPT used two answer strategies. In the first, the AI partially takes up the question and answers that the secret of the entrance exam is a combination of three factors (intelligence, effort and luck). The other strategy is to start the text by answering that intelligence is the main factor. This proposition is briefly elaborated and then the AI establishes a contrasting relationship stating that effort is equally important. In this way, the text does not have just one central unit, but two. In the texts produced by candidates for the entrance exam, in addition to the elaboration relation, evidence and justification relations were also found, which aim to increase the reader's belief in the thesis defended by the author. In another analysis parameter, a high frequency of repetition of nouns and adjectives was observed in the central unit of the texts generated by ChatGPT in comparison with the texts produced by entrance exam candidates, who used a wider repertoire of words.
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