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Writing in the Sciences: Tech + AI in the Writing Classroom

ChatGPT, Bing, OpenAI: The End of Google?

One of the big questions consuming our world right now has to do with the ethics and affordances of artificial intelligence: how does it work?  when should it be used, and by whom?  what are the ethics of AI use?  In the writing classroom, questions like these have especially come to the fore around the contentious rise of large language models (LLMs), as well as generative AI technologies like ChatGPT.

In this unit, we will confront these questions head on: weighing the pros and cons of AI technologies in the writing classroom; experimenting with AI and other technologies that impact the modern (writing) landscape; asking ourselves questions about how these technologies work and when we think we should use them; and reflecting on, researching, and analyzing our own positions towards this complicated contemporary question.  

As we build up to the unit project, you will identify one question that you have about how AI and/or other related technologies work—and you will also develop one associated ethical question you have about the use of these technologies.  Among other things, we will consider the following guiding questions:

  • How do different AI technologies work, and how are they impacting us?
  • Where else do we encounter artificial intelligence in our daily lives?  
  • What are some of the ethical questions involved in our modern uses of AI?
  • What are the affordances and offshoots of using technologies like ChatGPT in the college classroom?  In the writing classroom?  In the workplace?

Across this unit, you will hone your research skills, your rhetorical analysis skills, and your critical thinking skills as you continue to develop the ability to emulate genre conventions.  This unit will involve extrapolating from both scholarly and popular sources, building and researching an argumentative essay, rhetorically analyzing the outputs of AI writing and non-AI writing, and reflecting more generally on this topical question of AI in the modern world.  Over the course of this unit, we will learn about how these technologies work, how they are used and produced, what their forerunners are, and what the future of artificial intelligence research might look like.  At the same time that we dig into the scientific research, development, and refinement of these technologies, we will also use research, writing, and analysis to consider the ethical questions occupying AI use in the college writing classroom.  

ChatGPT is a Lying Narcissist! - Tema Frank

FEEDER 1.1 – Topic Proposal & Annotated Bibliography

Topic Proposal:

Briefly describe your topic and your rationale for this topic (and your primary “question” about AI/ChatGPT) in approximately 150 words.  Your topic proposal should impart to the reader how pressing, interesting, and noteworthy your subject is.  Consider:

  • What essential questions does this project consider, and how does it utilize research to answer this question?
  • How does this topic intervene in the current cultural conversations happening around technology use and AI?
  • Does your topic proposal (1) answer a question you have about how AI works, and (2) seek to answer a central question about the ethics of AI?  Do you spend time considering the pros and cons of the questions you plan to pursue?
  • What makes your topic interesting, relevant, topical, or important for non-specialist readers?

Annotated Bibliography:

Provide a preliminary bibliography of at least 4 research sources that you plan to use in your research paper.  Please use CSE format.  With each bibliographic entry, include a short (4-6 sentence) explanation for each source that:

  • Summarizes the argument of the article,
  • Notes any details pertinent to your project, and
  • Indicates how you may incorporate this information into your final article.

You might also consider: What is the main finding of the article?  What was most interesting to you and/or to your non-expert readers?  What methods were used in this study?  What are the potential limitations of this study?  How does this article add something new (a new angle, a new finding, a new approach, etc.) to your topic that sets it apart from your other sources?

Of your sources, at least 2 must be peer-reviewed journal articles.  

  • At least ONE peer-reviewed article must in some way utilize scientific research answer a question about “how” some element of technology is working, and
  • At least ONE peer-reviewed article must utilize non-scientific research to interrogate some ethical question at the heart of your topic.  

FEEDER 1.2 – Research Report: human v. machine

In this feeder, you will build a short, research-driven, argumentative essay about the topic you proposed in Feeder 1.1 about the role and ethics of modern technology and artificial intelligence.  Drawing from your own research and our class discussions, you will write a 3-5 page paper that grapples with a key ethical question around AI and the use of AI, considering “what are the ethics of this technology?”

Considering the scope of the questions I am asking you to consider in this unit, I do not expect you to come to a comprehensive or airtight conclusion about your chosen question; in this unit, we’re exploring these questions together.  What you should aim to do is write a clean, clear, and compelling research paper that (1) considers a central ethical question about AI technologies, (2) gestures to some of the different perspectives surrounding this topic, and (3) comes to a clear conclusion (informed by your research on the topic) that demonstrates what you think about the topic and why.

A successful research report will contain a clear and compelling answer to two central questions: (1) “How does this technology work?” and (2) “What is one ethical question we should be considering about this technology?”.  

A successful research report will:

  • Highlight recent research findings on your topic,
  • Adopt an engaging and informative tone,
  • Include carefully edited text that forms an argumentative narrative with a logical progression,
  • Weigh both sides of the ethical debate and make an informed and convincing claim about the questions and ethics that you are raising about your chosen technology,
  • Be between 3-5 pages in length, double-spaced, in 12pt Times New Roman font,
  • Use correct CSE style citations.

UNIT PROJECT – Rhetorical Analysis and Portfolio Reflection

Building from the thinking, research, and writing you have already done across this unit, your final project will be comprised of three parts:

  1. Revised “Research Report”
  2. ChatGPT Generated “Research Report” (with annotations)
  3. Rhetorical Analysis Paper

The most important element of your unit project submission will be your rhetorical analysis paper, which should be between 3-5 pages in length.  A successful rhetorical analysis paper should consider and analyze the nature of your “chat” with ChatGPT and the different kinds of outputs that it produced (or tried to produce) in response to your promptings.  You should also consider the differences between the revised “Research Report” (written by you) and the AI-generated “Research Report” (generated by ChatGPT).  Along the way, consider and assess the rhetorical construction of (and difference between) each research report through an analysis of rhetorical elements like Organization, Content, Style, and Variation:

  • Organization – How is the document organized?  How would you characterize the logic and clarity of each paper’s organization?  Which is more effectively organized and why?
  • Content – What kind of information is included?  What goes in each section (if sections are included)?  What kind of research is involved?  Has this research been ethically sourced?  Is the research accurate and correct?
  • Style – Reflect on and consider the style differences between your research report and the AI-generated research report.  What kinds of sentences are used?  Vocabulary?  Tone?  Level of formality?  How are sources used?  How did your promptings to ChatGPT shift the style of the ChatGPT paper?  
  • Variation – How stable or standardized do you understand these two different papers to be? How much variation do you see, or very little?  How did your prompting technique effect this, and the success and/or similarity of your original paper and the AI-generated paper?  What do these differences (or similarities) tell you about the rhetorical choices available to you as the writer?  What does that tell you about ChatGPT and AI technologies?
  • Reflection – What do you notice about the differences between these reports?  Why are these differences (or similarities!) important to you, and what do they imply?  How does this inform your understanding of AI technologies and the ethics of using AI technologies?  

Your analysis should lead to a conclusion, which describes what you perceive as the essential differences and similarities between the two pieces.  Your paper may also include a reflection on what this rhetorical analysis has led you to conclude about AI and the role of AI as a writing tool. 

In addition to our standard Unit Reflection questions (where you should feel free to use bullet points!), your Unit Project submission should also include a Unit Project Reflection that answers the following questions (in paragraph form) – “What did you learn about AI and ChatGPT in this unit?”  “Has your relationship to and understanding of AI and ChatGPT changed across the course of this unit?”  “How will the work of this unit inform future AI use for you in your daily life, college, and career?”  Please share any other reflections, insights, commentaries, recommendations, or advice you have about the construction of this unit and how it has impacted your understanding of this topic.