All tools have advantages and disadvantages for writers. Generative AI (AI) tools like ChatGPT are no exception. Duke Learning Innovation & Lifetime Education notes that AI tools may offer advantages such as: increasing efficiency for drafting emails and other texts; stimulating thinking by suggesting texts to analyze and critique; and increasing accessibility for neurodiverse people who struggle with early steps in the writing process. AI also presents significant disadvantages. It produces texts with biases and incorrect information and raises concerns about intellectual property. As with anything we might use in our writing or to assist us in our writing process, we are accountable for it. It is our responsibility to make sure the information is factually accurate and that we give credit to ideas that are not our own.  

Here are some ways you can ethically and responsibly use generative AI in WRT 201:

• For help generating ideas, ask ChatGPT for a list of ideas for writing a particular assignment and then choose one of those ideas to develop on your own.
• For revising at the sentence level, ask ChatGPT to revise a sentence you are struggling with, and then revise what ChatGPT generates.
• For making decisions about organization, ask ChatGPT for ideas on how to start a particular genre of writing, such as an essay, research paper, or lightning talk.

Notice in these examples that you as the writer make decisions based on suggestions from ChatGPT.  AI tools should never replace your own critical thinking, reading, and writing. 

Writers are responsible for acknowledging the sources of their ideas, whether they are people, texts, or tools such as AI. Please acknowledge any use of AI in your work in the acknowledgments section of each of our projects. (Here’s a guide by MLA for citing AI work.)² Explain how you used AI as part of your writing and composing process. This acknowledgment process will help you to consider AI’s role in your own critical thinking and decision-making as a writer, will help me to see how AI works for you as a writer, and gives you an opportunity to pause and consider how you are using others’ work fairly and responsibly. 

If you ever have a question about the use of AI, please ask me. We will actively explore your questions together in the course. I’d like to help you understand ways these tools can support your work and also how to use them responsibly and ethically, particularly important in the context of our course which includes the study of writing tools and their implications for writers as part of our class inquiry.

* This AI policy was inspired by, and partially adapted from, similar syllabus policies developed by Learning Innovation and Lifetime Education, as well as Dr. Jessica Corey, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Thompson Writing Program.