Aug 15, 2023
Good question: how can AI writing tools support academic writing?
Many good questions are asked in the writing consultation at the TU Dresden Writing Center. To the question "How can AI writing tools support scientific writing?" Paulina, Writing Didactics Officer at SZD, gives an answer:
In their introduction to "Ten Theses on the Future of Writing in Science" (2023), Limburg et al. write, "[w]isscientific writing is massively affected by the current, extremely dynamic developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and is accordingly subject to rapid and far-reaching changes" (p. 3). They are not the only ones who see the future of scholarly writing changing over the course of the last few months, and I share their perspective as well.
Framing: Artificial intelligence in scientific writing mainly refers to AI writing tools based on large language models. They have been "trained on huge text corpora [...] to statistically compute and generate linguistic probabilities" (Limburg et al. p. 3). However, besides the prominent example of ChatGPT, there are also "AI-based applications for research, reading, translation, and other writing-related activities" (ibid.), which will not be considered in detail in the context of this Good Question. The focus is on text-generating AI applications.
Change takes place outside of our comfort zone ("You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone." Roy T. Bennett). So it is with academic writing. Over the past few decades, certain traditions and processes for writing all sorts of texts have become established. Now, with the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, a tool is entering the sphere of higher education that brings enormous potential for change. Reactions and opinions on the impact on (not only) university teaching and academic writing polarize between utopia and dystopia. In the following, a positive perspective will be taken, showing the possibilities to support the (student) writing process with artificial intelligence. The challenges and problems of dealing with AI applications should not be ignored, but are not the focus here.
1. Inspiration
Text-generating AI applications offer the great advantage that they are an endless source of inspiration. Since ChatGPT, for example, never outputs the same text twice, but always finds new formulations and answers to the same questions, it is possible to output different versions that can be used for further work.
2. Linguistic competence
The formulated texts of AI applications are often as good as error-free in many languages and are becoming better and better differentiated. Thus, writers can concentrate on the content, the argumentation, and the facts (the so-called Higher Order Concerns) and leave the initial formulation or reformulations to the AI.
In addition, language correction can be supported by AI applications.
3. Individual feedback
The number of students at German universities is growing faster than the number of teachers who have to evaluate their texts. Writers can get feedback on their own texts from AI applications. If teachers share evaluation criteria with students at the beginning of the writing process, AI feedback can help them improve their texts in a targeted way.
4. Interlocutor & stimulation to critical thinking
The exchange about one's own text is an important part of the writing process. With AI applications, we not only have the opportunity to get feedback on the text, but we can also talk to it about the text. Questions can be asked about our own text, questioning the argumentation or the red thread, for example. We question the answer given to these questions again ourselves before we use the input to improve our own text. It is possible that new perspectives will be revealed that have not yet been considered in the text. The result can be "much more thoughtful, differentiated, better reasoned, and in the end, better texts in the academic sense" (Limburg et al. 2023, p. 14).
Because the conversation with the AI application takes place in writing, this also allows the process of creating the text to be transparently understood and reflected upon.
AI applications can support the writing process in a variety of ways, and there will also be many new possibilities in the future as a result of constant further developments. But already today their potential must not be disregarded and all who write scientific texts have to deal with AI applications. The (here very brief) multi-layered consideration of artificial intelligence in the context of writing "offers [...] reason for optimism, since it makes clear that the future [...] is not deterministically pre-programmed, but rather opens up possibilities for action [...] (ibid., p. 19). In an unconstrained utopian perspective, "the importance of scientific writing [...] can thus be strengthened by developments in artificial intelligence, for the good of the world community and for solving complex, global problems such as climate change." (ibid.)
Literature:
Limburg, A., Bohle-Jurok, U. , Buck, I., Grieshammer, E., Gröpler, J., Knorr, D., Mundorf, M., Schindler, K., Wilder, N. (2023). Zehn Thesen zur Zukunft des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens. Diskussionspapier Nr. 23. Berlin: Hochschulforum Digitalisierung.
© Sven Ellger
Consultant for Writing Didactics
NamePaulina Hösl
Project sTUDy smart, expert for AI & writing
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Writing Center of TU Dresden
Writing Center of TU Dresden
Visiting address:
Fritz-Foerster-Bau, Floor 5, Room 556 Mommsenstr. 6
01069 Dresden
This post appeared on the occasion of the August 2023 Writing Center Newsletter. This and other newsletter issues are linked in the Writing Center Newsletter Archive.
© TUD
Writing Center of TU Dresden
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Visiting address:
Fritz-Foerster-Bau, room 571 Mommsenstr. 6
01069 Dresden
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The Writing Center of the TU Dresden (SZD) supports students and lecturers with offers for planning and writing various texts in studies such as vouchers, protocols, seminar papers and theses and for teaching academic writing in teaching and supervision. All information about offers and possibilities of support can be found in the areas for students and teachers.
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