A.I. Writing Techniques - Transcript
Written and Performed by J.T. Bushnell, Oregon State University Senior Instructor of English
When we talk about using AI in writing, most people think of one technique – you tell AI what you want and let it write the whole thing. The appeal of this method is really clear – you reach the finish line without having to put in very much time or effort. Some people call that efficiency, and they’re not wrong.
The risk is that people might know the writing came from AI, and have a negative reaction. That includes teachers, but also the bosses or colleagues or clients who don’t appreciate bots in their inboxes. That group of people seems to be growing, and in fact, using AI can actually damage your professional reputation by lowering people’s opinion of your competence and motivation.
And so a lot of people have moved on to a second technique – you ask AI for the ideas, then put them in your own words. Because it’s your writing, you’re less likely to get caught. But the AI is still doing all the, quote-unquote, “thinking.” The appeal, again, is that it’s easier. You don’t have to exercise that organ in your head very hard.
But that’s also the downside of both these methods. Exercise makes you stronger. Some of us find that really valuable. For some of us, that’s the whole reason we go to college – to learn, to improve, to develop skills that will help us in our careers and personal lives. AI seems to have the opposite effect, according to a growing body of research, reducing critical thinking, originality, confidence, and even neural connectivity.
In other words, using AI makes it harder to think for yourself. That’s scary. And so some of us are asking if we really want to sacrifice exercise for efficiency, especially in college.
So here’s a third technique I’m going to propose. In almost every kind of exercise, it helps to have someone pushing and guiding you – but not helping with the work. If they start lifting your weights, or offer to run the last lap on your behalf, you’d probably tell them to back off, especially if you’re out there to make yourself stronger or faster. Can we use AI that way?
To answer that question, it might help to think of writing as a process rather than a single act. First, there’s the planning: choosing a topic, figuring out what to say about it, organizing your ideas. Next comes research: looking for more information, seeing what other people have said, discovering counterarguments. Then there’s drafting, when you take all these ideas and wrestle them into sentences and paragraphs. Afterward comes revision: looking for things you missed, areas to improve.
These phases can overlap, or come in a different sequence, or cycle back more than once, but those are the basic steps. Rather than handing any of them off to AI, let’s look for places where AI can operate like a workout partner. The best way to find them, I think, is to consider where and how we’d ask a human for help.
Let’s start with planning. When you’re looking for a topic, you might talk to your teacher, or even run some initial ideas by them. You’re not asking them to choose for you, just to help guide
your thinking in a productive direction. Research? You might ask a librarian for good places to track down information, but it would probably never occur to you to ask the librarian to bring the information, let alone to read and digest it for you.
Revision? Maybe you give your rough draft to a classmate for peer review, or you take it to a tutor at the writing center, pointing out the parts you’re not sure about or find a little shaky. Their fresh eyes can help you see things more clearly, find improvements, even catch typos, but you’d never say, “Rewrite this whole thing for me, better.”
That’s because the one phase where we can’t really use AI this way is drafting. Most of us would be embarrassed to ask another human to do our writing for us. That embarrassment comes from the implicit understanding that we’re crossing a line, and that’s probably a helpful guidepost about making the same request to AI.
But I will tell you, personally, that sometimes I get stuck in the drafting phase just because the blank page feels so silent and important that I freeze up. To me, AI feels less silent, less important, and I’ve typed whole paragraphs there, just trying to explain myself, that I afterward paste into my document. The point isn’t to have the AI take it over, just to listen without judgment, which can help loosen the flow of ideas. I’m still the one trying to explain myself, and the writing is completely my own.
That’s the guiding principle in this third technique: you always start by doing your best to explain yourself, using the AI as a dialogue partner afterward to help push your thinking. But you have to be proactive, telling it what you want, correcting its interpretations, modifying its ideas. Think of it as a brainstorming session. You don’t just take whatever idea comes first, you ricochet off to ideas that are more relevant or accurate or personal or productive. And if at any point it starts doing too much, you tell it to back off. You have to decide, I’m the writer, I’m the boss, I’m calling the shots here, and the AI is only an assistant, a collaborator, a subordinate.
There’s already some research indicating that this technique can counteract AI’s worst effects on student learning. That’s not to say it’s without risk. Once you free the genie from the bottle, will you really be able to resist the temptation of its magic? Even if you do, will the risk be worth it, especially if your brainpower alone produces equivalent results?
Let me be clear. It’s perfectly fine to approach your writing without any AI use at all. It’s also fine to consult real humans on these things, which might also have other nice benefits, like meeting cool people, building friendships, hearing something hilarious. But if you’re going to incorporate AI into your writing process, you might consider giving this third method a try. Use it to push yourself further, rather than letting AI push you out of the learning process.
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