Your wording is interesting--I don't think you're wrong, but mentally rephrased as "a large trove of essays in the generic format mandated by teachers". It see

Your wording is interesting--I don't think you're wrong, but mentally rephrased as "a large trove of essays in the generic format mandated by teachers". It seems tragic that so many students were/are forced into this mechanical turk without pay, for work that is meant to be discarded, in a format that is flatly unacceptable, and now suspicious, in any other context.