Where do we go from here?
It’s a question that pops up in the car as I travel west 30 miles to work every day. It surfaces after recent grading sessions of my students’ argument papers. And in the hallways of the building where I work, it comes up when my colleagues and I ask it of each other almost daily. As writing instructors, where can we go now that AI has landed in our field?
Along about October 2023 I started to notice this phrase in several of my online students’ essays—"In this paper we will discuss the three ways”…- phrasing that I had decidedly taught them not to use! My first thought was that this was a line they were taught to use in the recipe writing they had adopted for standardized writing tests. However, I had not seen it crop up regularly at all until now, and I was reading it in maybe five out of 20 essays. It didn’t take me long to realize the connection: AI had made its landing in our very rural service area in North Florida.
Other red flags included a very well-written introduction and conclusion but underdeveloped body paragraphs. I caught on, and tested out my theory by plugging in a topic to ChatGPT. For example, a popular argument essay topic my students use is “high schools should prepare their students better for living on their own.” I would type in the “prompt” to ChatGPT and read a decent opener followed by points listed in outline format but not developed [suggestions for the body of the essay], and a fairly well-written closing. The students using AI, more often than not, did very little to develop the reasons for their argument, and despite the personal experience requirement for all essays I assign, in these AI-generated essays, I would see no trace of an anecdote or specific example. It should also be noted that the instances of copied AI-generated essays occurred exclusively in my online classes and not in my in-person classes.
At first, I felt personally affronted by the incidences of AI use. Students were not following my teaching. They were not writing in a meaningful manner, and I didn’t feel they were really learning how to write. I never directly accused my students of “cheating” or “plagiarizing” though I was not happy with the copied submissions. Instead, I recorded a “0” on these papers, and I required that they contact me via phone or office visit to explain their process for writing the essay. Unfortunately, more often than not, these students did not contact me, and they accepted the “0” on a key assignment. If a student submitted another plagiarized essay, I would contact them and request a meeting with me and my department head. At that point, we have a process in place at my institution wherein we record the incident and keep a file on the student. I did not have repeated instances of plagiarism by any one student.
Meanwhile, in the course of the semester, I attended several webinars on AI which seemed to concentrate on how we could potentially use it as a tool. I was at first resistant to this because I didn’t see how it would promote critical thinking and learning. Slowly, though, I have had to acknowledge that ChatGPT has a lot of potential for providing information, and it is here to stay. I’m not at the point where I am going to teach students how to use it per se. For instance, I don’t plan to locate an essay from ChatGPT for them and show them why/how the essay would not fit my assignment though I know this could be a valuable lesson. I also recognize that in the future I could do a lesson wherein I compare and AI-generated essay to a well-written, original student essay. However, I will, in lectures, discuss how it should not be used as a crutch to write partial or complete responses to written assignments but more as a way to generate initial ideas. For the essays I assign, for example, students can use it as they would a Google or Wikipedia search. Looking around “out in the world” can help them understand how others are talking about and approaching a topic. They can glean general ideas and get assistance with their brainstorming process on any one topic. However, in the end, they need to understand when to draw the line in using AI-generated material just as they would learn how to use the words of an academic in a peer-reviewed article. In the era of high technology, this has always been the most difficult aspect of teaching research writing. If a piece of writing is easily accessible and read, then why should ideas from it be cited? Once something is read, many students take ownership of the information and see no reason to cite it. This is an area of my teaching I can devote more time to and incorporate more examples of common knowledge and how to cite ideas and direct quotations.
Back to my question: where do I go from here?
I have decided to focus on creating meaningful assignments that would ideally discourage writers from copying from outside sources. For example, currently, I am working on a revision of my argument essay assignment in my developmental and in my freshman composition classes. I have ditched the standard list of argument topics and have introduced the focus of arguing for a change in students’ specific communities. They will be asked to describe their community to give their essay context, define the problem, and argue for a solution. A community could be the rural North Florida city in which they live, our college campus, dual-enrolled students’ high school campuses, or even a group to which they belong. The assignment requires a personal interview with an adult who is involved in some way in their chosen community issue and two citations from that primary source in the paper. I will also require that they submit a photo that somehow represents the problem/issue they are discussing. The personal experience element will naturally encourage more investment on their part. This type of writing requires more critical thinking, and it makes it very difficult for students to rely on outside sources. Most importantly, writing on topics that matter to the students will produce higher quality work.
I am in a sobered, but hopeful mood about teaching composition. Like my students, I have to learn about AI and I have to remain open about what it can offer. As educators, it would behoove us to take hold of the challenge and be the leaders in this new phase of our profession.
About the Writer
Professor Cobb holds a master’s degree in English and boasts an impressive 25-year career in teaching across various educational settings, including high schools, universities, and community colleges. Currently, she dedicates her expertise to a small, rural community college in Northeast Florida, where she has been an integral part of the academic community for 15 years.
In her current role, Professor Cobb passionately teaches developmental reading and writing, freshman composition, and a survey course in literature. The diversity of her student population in this beautiful, wooded part of the country brings her immense joy and fulfillment.
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