Generative AI
AI-Intensive Mind Mapping
This activity introduces mind mapping, a practice in which students explore and develop their research topic and determine its core concepts. As students explore, the instructor provides instruction to help students identify questions by type and to search thoughtfully and strategically for sources from contextual background information to academic scholarship. This activity may be used […]
AI Decision Infographic
Consider sharing the following infographic with students near the beginning of the semester, and perhaps returning to it for some focused reflection, when discussing the uses of Gen AI. Download a .pdf version of the infographic (text-accessible version below) for use with your students. Before you use an AI tool, press “pause” and consider: Personal […]
Forming Research Questions (AI-Assisted)
Developing a research question for a semester-long project–such as those required in WR 151, WR 152, or WR 153–is a challenging process. The strategies outlined below help students use AI tools to focus in on a question that is meaningful for them and appropriate for their project. Where necessary, feel free to replace the examples […]
Teaching Writing with Generative AI
Over the past several years, our faculty have experimented with many different exercises and activities involving AI-assisted writing instruction. You’ll notice that almost all of the suggestions linked from this page end with a recommendation that you ask your students to reflect on, debrief, compare, evaluate, or discuss the AI-generated text—a step crucial to developing […]
Teaching About AI-Mediated Writing
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), […]
Writing Instruction in the Age of Generative AI
“Writing is thinking” asserts compositionist John Warner in a 2023 column on AI in Inside Higher Ed. “If text is produced without thinking, that’s not writing. That’s something else.” If you agree with Warner, it follows that the best way to respond to the rise of generative AI may be to continue or expand the […]