Different faculty will have different
policies about when and how students can use AI
resources to write or edit assignments--if any use is
permitted. Such variation reflects the fact that
different courses have different purposes. The policies
listed below thus are applicable only to my courses.
When are you NOT permitted to use AI resources in my
classes?
You are never permitted to use AI resources on tests,
whether given as take-home or in-class exams. Also,
you may NOT use AI to write any part of a paper
assignment, to paraphrase other authors' ideas,
summarize assigned readings, generate paper ideas, or
provide evidence to support your arguments. In short,
all ideas and writing in tests and your papers must be
your own or those you have gained by carefully reading
and summarizing the ideas of assigned materials so
that you can engage, reference, and cite these
readings' evidence, examples, or arguments
appropriately.
When and how may you use AI in my classes?
Unless explicitly instructed otherwise, you may
use AI assistance to strengthen your writing and course
materials management. Specifically, you are encouraged
to use AI as a tutor to help you better understand
concepts in class, organize your notes, and as a study
guide. The idea here is to use AI as a partner in
learning, not as a crutch that does the "learning" for
you. When writing papers, you may use AI for editing
purposes or to receive feedback similar to what you
would get from HPU’s Writing Center.
While the areas where you
may use AI resources is limited, I strongly encourage
you to use these resources for the permitted purposes.
Just as my feedback on essays is meant to strengthen
your writing over time, using AI to help you to
identify grammar, phrasing, organizational, and
citation issues in your essays should help you become
a better writer in the long run. If you aren't aware
of mistakes you are regularly making, it is hard to
correct them.
At a minimum, please use the free version of Grammarly or a comparable service to identify basic grammar and phrasing issues before submitting papers. However, do not blindly accept all suggested revisions, as doing so may introduce errors into your writing. If you're unsure whether a suggestion is correct, review the relevant grammar rule.
What kind of AI
prompts are
likely will give you useful feedback of the kind permitted in my classes?
Below are sample prompts that I have ordered in the
sequence of editing issues writers typically address
once they have written a strong first draft of their
paper:
Should I reorder any of the paragraphs in this essay to improve the flow of my argument?
Are there places where I could strengthen my argument by moving content between paragraphs?
Outside of the introduction and conclusion, do any paragraphs repeat ideas or arguments already covered earlier in the essay?
Do all my paragraphs start with a clear topic sentence summarizing the paragraph's main argument? Are there any major arguments introduced mid-paragraph?
Do my topic sentences include
transitions that help guide the reader through the
essay’s overall logic?
Identify any paragraphs where the
writing skips between disparate ideas. Are there places
in the writing that would be easier to follow if I
added a transition to better connect ideas.
Are there places where I need stronger evidence and examples. Note that any examples in my essay must reflect my own work and original thinking, so just identify any areas that have problems.
Are there places where I should include citations to show where an idea, example, statistic, or quotation came from?
Are there places
where I could more elegantly introduce an idea or
a quotation from a cited source? I want to
carefully integrate quotations and evidence so
that the writing is elegant.
Are there sentences where my phrasing could be clearer, more professional, or more polished? Any suggested revisions must preserve my voice and ideas, as required by this assignment.
Proofread the essay for grammar issues and ensure the writing is appropriate in tone and phrasing for an academic audience, including my professor. Help me identify and reduce passive voice. Also help me to identify any places where I am using first-person voice to say that I believe something. Identify issues without suggesting specific revisions--maintaining my original voice and ideas is a requirement for this assignment.
If
you get revised copy from an AI engine that distorts
your writer’s voice or original ideas, tell the AI
resource to, “Try this same task again, but this
time make sure to keep my original writer’s voice
and ideas.”
You
will find that it sometimes helps to ask an AI
resource the same prompt twice. For example, after
asking whether there are places where the writing is
awkward or where arguments could use more evidence,
you may find other areas in need of attention if you
follow up with this question: “Are there any other
areas of concern for the same reason?”
Notice that each of these prompts are the kind of questions you would work through with a tutor in HPU’s writing center rather than asking the tutor to write or rewrite sections of your paper for you. Notice also that these are the types of issues on which I am most likely to comment on when grading your paper if they are not addressed earlier in the writing process.