To be fair, no one writes an essay in slides either. Undergrads are either preparing to enter the workforce or to continue their studies.

For the former, the "sharp tool" of a zine focuses on the thesis, to argue one thing well. One could argue no essential complexity is lost in zines [1].

It would be awesome though to compose an essay in an email and to be read in kind, footnotes and all.

[1] https://wizardzines.com/zines/

Unpaywalled: https://web.archive.org/web/20251228194320/https://www.teleg...

All of this garbage just makes employers lose faith in university degrees as a source of truth about candidates. But I guess the government is becoming the largest employer in every country and socialists don't care about merit or performance. The rest of us all suffer from this sort of thing.