We get a lot of questions from students about AI – when to use it, when not to use it, and how to use it to strengthen writing skills.

We’re here to help you answer those questions.

• Don't use AI to generate writing for you (unless it is part of the assignment and then always include a disclosure note). The process of writing literally builds and strengthens the brain. Outsourcing it to AI shortcuts the process of becoming a smarter, stronger thinker.
• If you use AI, use it to learn. Ask yourself the following questions: Is this making me a better writer and thinker? When the internet dies, will I be able to do this myself?
• If you use AI, don't let it take over. Ask it questions. Ask it for feedback (see our bot on the left). Explicitly tell it not to write or revise sentences for you (sometimes CoPilot will rewrite stuff even when you don't ask it to - see our bot to prevent this from happening). Shut it down and see if you can do it yourself. (See here for more ideas)

Writing is important to learning. Articulating our thoughts and ideas in writing helps us consolidate our understanding of important concepts, discover gaps in our knowledge, and build our thinking skills. In other words, the process of writing – figuring out what to say, how to organize ideas, and how to express thoughts clearly - builds and strengthens the brain. See here for a study that compared the cognitive effects (effect on the brain) of writing an essay with and without the assistance of AI tools. Students who used their brain only showed much stronger activation of neural networks (55% more) than students who relied on ChatGPT or even a search engine like Google, particularly in the areas of the brain that are used to generate ideas and integrate different kinds of information. The brain-only students also reported much stronger gains in memory as well as higher levels of satisfaction and ownership of their work than either of the other two groups.

However, AI tools - if used carefully - can contribute to learning and help you strengthen your writing skills. AI tools can answer all kinds of questions, explain ideas and concepts, and generate useful examples. They can be useful conversation partners; they are always ready to talk to us about our ideas and help us solve problems. They are never tired or grumpy. And they can give us feedback on writing (but see warning above about not allowing it to automatically rewrite or revise for you). See here for a list of examples of how to use AI tools in ways that help your learning and make YOU a better writer.

AI tools can write really well without any grammar errors or awkward language. So, why shouldn’t I just give CoPilot or ChatGPT my ideas and let it write them up for me? They’re my ideas, after all.

Writing can feel difficult, especially when you are struggling to try to come up with the right words to express your thoughts or to figure out how to organize information so that it flows logically to support a point or argument. But the struggle and effort writing requires is part of the process of building your brain and your thinking skills. Outsourcing writing to an AI tool short-circuits the learning process. It’s like trying to build muscle strength by watching YouTube videos of weightlifters in a gym.

In addition, we need good writing skills to use AI tools effectively. We need to be able to 

• write clear and accurate questions – and ask them in a lot of different ways – to get good answers
• understand what good writing looks like (it’s about more than just good grammar) to be able to evaluate and modify writing AI tools produce.
• write good prompts to get good output
• use research skills to fact-check the information we get from AI

Employers want people who can use AI to generate writing. Shouldn’t I learn how to do this at college?

Yes, absolutely. Many of your professors will include AI tools in their courses and some will ask you to use AI tools to generate various forms of writing (emails, marketing materials, summaries of information). Here at the Writing Center, we’re happy to help show you how to evaluate and revise AI-generating writing when you are asked to do this in an assignment. Our primary focus, however, is to show you how to use AI tools to improve your own writing skills, not to produce writing for you.