So I've noticed a recent trend in Odyssey articles, and I'm totally not here for it. It seems a lot of creators have decided to adopt the same lazy writing format, which can basically be summarized as having a title such as "X Reasons Why (insert controversial opinion/topic here) Is Correct" and then the content of the article literally just being something like the words, "It's not."

Writing for Odyssey shouldn't be a chore, it shouldn't be something that you just want to get over with as quickly and easily as possible. Odyssey should be a place for you to have fun, a place for your writing skills to grow and expand as you share your voice with the world. I can promise you, writing three words per article will not help your writing grow, and also isn't all that fun to do. It's pretty apparent that the people writing these articles are doing it just to get in a quick and simple article to count towards their submissions for the month. Or wait, maybe they write those articles as a way of arguing against a point they don't believe in? Well, if it is a genuine attempt at an argument, that just makes it even lazier writing.

Have you ever had an argument with someone whose entire counter to anything you say to them is just that you're wrong and they're right? Not only is it infuriating, but it's also an incredibly ineffective way to argue. It presents no evidence as to why it is correct, does nothing to persuade the listener/reader, and ultimately just leaves those that agree feeling like they've wasted their time and those that disagree feeling frustrated. If you honestly wanted to argue a point you strongly believed in, this would be the last way you would go about it.

This whole writing format is really just like a bad joke, which also completely negates the argument that someone wrote it to be funny rather than as a serious article. It was funny the first time, the second time it may get have gotten a few chuckles, but any time after that it just became not funny, annoying, and overused.

Please Odyssey content creators, stop using this format. It's lazy, and I know you are all so much better than that. Write something that you can truly be proud of.