Whether we like it or not, generative artificial intelligence is shifting how people create and experience texts, obligating those of us who teach writing to also teach critical AI literacy. This page offers some basic information for writing instructors and some guidance on how to talk with students about generative AI.
Large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, use machine learning algorithms that produce responses to user-generated prompts and mimic human communication patterns based on the input they receive. Drawing on massive datasets that include billions of bits of text, LLMs can generate output reflective of a wide range of genres, including the academic essay, in language that approximates human expression. (Research shows that humans can’t reliably the tell the difference between human and AI-generated text, even when they feel confident that they can.)
“[D]eveloping AI literacy requires that you learn certain basics about how GenAI works, how to use it, and how to evaluate its output. You should also learn when not to use it.”
We recommend a balanced approach that makes room for experimentation and infuses critical AI literacy across our courses’ learning objectives. By addressing generative AI directly and being explicit about how and when it can be useful in the composing process, instructors can enhance students’ agency as writers and help close the “AI literacy divide” in a way that supports our equity goals as well as our learning goals.
Teaching Recommendations
Before the term starts
Please note that the following AI uses are authorized across all WR classes:
Using AI tools to learn about or translate terms or vocabulary words (not translate entire papers)
Using AI tools to offer you feedback on whether your grammar and usage conform with standard academic English. (Note: There may be times when the choice not to use standard academic English in your writing is appropriate and/or effective.
As you’re preparing for the semester, we strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with at least one generative AI tool to understand the kind of output it produces relative to your course topic and teaching. It may be helpful to explore how the various tools available through TerrierGPT or those listed in the BU Libraries Guide might help you in generating or revising essay prompts about your topic, creating classroom discussion questions based on course readings that you share with it, suggesting examples or applications of course concepts that are relevant to your students, or suggesting and summarizing new course readings. Once you find some ways that GAI tools—in combination with your expertise and critical judgment—can be helpful to you in your teaching, you may arrive at new ideas for how it can be useful to students in their learning as well.
This resource may help you think through the (complicated!) questions of academic integrity across a range of possible student GAI uses. This flowchart may help you define an approach to GAI that supports student learning in your own teaching context.
At the beginning of the term
Within the first two weeks of the semester, set aside time in class to talk with your students about AI-generated writing. Students are likely using GAI in a wide variety of ways for academic and other purposes, including ways that you are very unlikely to detect. They want and need guidance from their instructors about which uses are acceptable and clear explanation of why.
Remind students that text they enter when using LLM platforms may no longer be private. It will be incorporated into the greater pool of data that the LLMs draw on, fair game for reuse without their permission and reason not to input sensitive or personal information. (One advantage of using TerrierGPT is that privacy protections are built in.)
If you plan to authorize uses of AI tools that go beyond the Writing Program’s AI use guidelines, help the class come up with an agreement that details expectations and terms of ethical and responsible use for your section’s assignments, perhaps as part of a larger classroom community agreement discussion. Put detailed class AI guidelines in writing and offer guidance on citation.
You may also want to incorporate an activity that raises questions central to critical AI literacy:
Image generated by ChatGPT, August 2025.
Example 1
In small groups, ask students to choose a freely available GAI tool and use it to generate images of something that the students are sure to know a lot about—for example, a class at BU or some BU students. Then come together to share and analyze the different results. The images will likely be some combination of impressive, trite, biased, and inaccurate, depending on the tool and the prompt. Though image generators and text generators don’t work in exactly the same ways, using images as examples can help you to quickly raise important questions about GAI’s powers and limitations.
Example 2
Ask students to describe the BU campus in 100 words, telling them to be as detailed and vivid as they can. Next, ask them to use a generative AI tool to create a vivid description of the BU campus. Then, ask them to compare and evaluate their own and AI descriptions: How are the two texts similar? How are they different? What do you notice about AI’s description? Do any patterns emerge? What do you like about each description? What are the strengths of human-generated writing and of AI-generated writing? These questions can frame a discussion about language, perspective, and voice.
Example 3
Create an anonymous poll (using a tool like Mentimeter) that lists a series of rhetorical situations and ask students to what degree they think generative AI output would be useful in that context. For example: You are a teenager who needs to write thank-you notes to members of your extended family; a job hunter seeking feedback on a cover letter; a wedding guest preparing to give a toast in a non-native language; a member of a marketing team brainstorming about an ad campaign for a new client; a student who needs to change the format of their research paper from one citation system to another. (The topic of your class may lend itself to other examples.) Put students in small groups to talk about the class results and their own views, then come back together to discuss and synthesize: Where was there most consensus/disagreement and why? What kinds of reasoning did people use to explain their opinions? This exercise can open up questions about ethics, accuracy, accessibility, and more.
Throughout the term
You may want to revisit class expectations for ethical and responsible use of generative AI later in the term, in the context of particular assignments or activities. Whether you experiment with GAI in your teaching or not, continue to emphasize writing as an experience and a process, supported by in-class scaffolding activities that engage students in critical thinking, collaboration with peers, and reflection. If you authorize particular uses of GAI tools, do so explicitly and offer students guidance on citation. For more ideas, check out the resources at Teaching Writing with GAI
Create an anonymous poll (using a tool like