Spotlight

Robotic hand drawing with chalk on green board
Image created with DALLE-2.

The public release of ChatGPT-3 in November 2022 opened a new chapter in the long history of writing and technology. We now live and teach in a world where generative AI tools are widely available, and it’s up to us to learn how to orient our students to this new environment and to develop approaches to teaching writing that take generative AI into consideration. 

With all of this in mind, in summer 2023, a group of Writing Program faculty came together to create a new set of resources designed to support our colleagues as we adjust to teaching writing in the age of generative AI. We drew on readings by experts and our own early experiments with AI-mediated instruction to create resources that focus on the writing process, make connections between writing and critical thinking, and emphasize curiosity, creativity, and reflection.

READ ABOUT THE WRITING PROGRAM/CGS RHETORIC AI-INTENSIVE WRI PILOT PROJECT HERE.

These resources are only a start. In the coming years, faculty will continue to learn alongside students, and we’ll all need to revisit our approaches as the technologies continue to evolve. But we hope these resources are useful in the classroom right now and that they set the stage for ongoing inquiry and conversation.

“We believe that writing itself—from the earliest impression of marks on clay to recent word processors with autocorrect, research citation, and other aids—has always been a technology and, as such, is always open to new technologies. However, we also believe that human endeavors are at the heart of humanities education—and education more broadly.”

—MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI

Read the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI Working Paper: Overview of the Issues, Statement of Principles, and Recommendations

Special thanks to the Writing Program’s AI-Mediated Writing Committee:

  • Pary Fassihi, Senior Lecturer, CAS WP
  • Blake Huggins, Lecturer, CAS WP
  • Maria Gapotchenko, Master Lecturer, CAS WP
  • Aleksandra Kasztalska, Senior Lecturer, CAS WP
  • Chris McVey, Senior Lecturer, CAS WP
  • Dan Rabinowitz, Educational Technologist, CAS
  • David Shawn, Associate Director for Writing in the Disciplines

Questions or comments? Contact Sarah Madsen Hardy, Director, CAS Writing Program


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