Writing is a technology that restructures considering – and within the age of AI, universities must teach it more

In the age of AI-powered writing, is it necessary for university students to learn to put in writing?

We imagine that is the case today greater than ever.

In writing classes, students are given the time and help they need to know writing not only as a skill, but as what linguist Walter J. Ong called “writing.”Technology that restructures considering.”

“Technology” isn’t nearly iPhones or spreadsheets – it’s about that Communicating our relationship with the world through the creation of toolsand writing itself is arguably a very powerful considering tool that university students must master.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, not everyone agrees.

Role of university writing courses

“Remove the required first yr writing course” was the headline of a provocative article published in November.

In this text, Washington State University writing professor Melissa Nicolas writes that while she sees reason to query how effective first-year composition courses have been, “the appearance of generative artificial intelligence is the ultimate nail within the matter. “Coffin.”

In her estimation, “learning to put in writing and learning to put in writing are two various things.” First-year writing courses are “mostly about learning to put in writing, but AI can now do this for us.” Writing to learn is way more complicated and may can only be done by the human mind.”

We reject this distinction. From the attitude of human learning and development, the grammatically correct prose produced by generative AI like ChatGPT just isn’t “good writing” – even whether it is or appears to be factually correct – if it lacks mental engagement with its subject reflects. Not to say serious questions on the importance of extracting insights from digital data, issues related to data bias, etc.

Composition and other writing courses in the primary yr are a This is a vital a part of the best way university students are socialized into types of communication This will serve them well beyond their studies.

Canadian versus American universities

We propose a special solution to the issue raised by Nicolas that first-year composition courses are formulaic and outdated. Universities must dedicate resources to expanding and improving writing programs, including first-year composition.

We need this especially in Canada, where e.g A doctoral thesis conducted by one among the authors of this text (Taylor Morphett) has shown Composing in the primary yr is traditionally under-emphasized and writing is just taught fragmentedly.

As undergraduate composition courses began to develop within the United States within the late nineteenth century, In Canada, the emphasis was on fine-tuning literary tastes and reading canonical British literature.

The educational philosophies and teaching approaches that developed from this early period are still present in Canada today. Writing training is usually viewed by universities as a remedial skill, something students should have already got mastered.

In reality, way more writing instruction is required. Today's students are plunging right into a sea of They have great difficulty finding their way around texts, information and technologiesand ChatGPT has made it harder, not easier, for college kids to discern the credibility of sources.

Writing programs in Canada

Writing courses allow students to understand the critical diversity and power of one among our greatest technologies: the human act of writing, a system of finite resources but infinite combination possibilities. You learn to think, synthesize, assess the credibility of sources and knowledge, and interact with an audience – none of which AI can do.

Fortunately, some universities have taken the lead in making writing a cornerstone of undergraduate education. For example, the University of Victoria has one high demands on academic writing for all students, no matter subject area. At the University of Toronto Mississauga, Freshmen complete an modern, credit-bearing writing course that needs a “Writing about writing” approach. In this program, students study writing as a tutorial subject itself and not only as a skill. They learn concerning the meaning, complexity and social location of educational writing.

Required in any respect universities

All Canadian universities should require an initial academic writing or communications course for all students, together with upper-level subject-specific writing courses that concentrate on academic and skilled genres of their areas of experience.

Academic and skilled writing is a second language for everybody: nobody is born knowing tips on how to properly cite sources or formulate sound business proposals.

We need specialized writing programs that help students understand and communicate complex concepts to a particular audience for a particular purpose in a rhetorically flexible manner and to pay attention to their responsibilities to a human community of readers.

Skills and knowledge to make a difference

Generative AI like ChatGPT cannot do that since it cannot know or “understand” anything. Its job is to generate plausible symbol chains in response to human input, based on data it has been trained on.

We have knowledgeable and talented graduate students with degrees in communications, applied linguistics, English, rhetoric, and related fields, whose expertise in these areas is way needed at institutions across the country.

If Canada wants to coach domestic and international students with the abilities and knowledge they should make a difference on this planet, we must train them in writing.