Composing with AI

Introduction

In light of increasing calls for clear policy to guide the mediation and use of AI writing tools and large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT in higher education and writing studies in particular, we, Dr. Daniel Frank and Dr. Jennifer Johnson—two writing teachers in the UCSB Writing Program—present a dialectical conversation reflecting our evolving thoughts, arguments, and pedagogical approaches to the incorporation of LLM technology in the writing classroom, which culminated in the writing and publishing of the UCSB Writing Program’s Policy on ChatGPT and AI Writing. This policy addresses the conscious and critical use of AI writing technologies in writing and research practices, which is increasingly important as AI tools gain prominence in education. The policy aims to provide transparency, ethical guidance, and support for faculty and students in incorporating LLM tools in their work.

In this chapter, we reflect on the goals, intentions, and critical considerations at play during the policy's drafting process, which included two faculty workshops that yielded a spectrum of perspectives about the challenges and transformative potential of ChatGPT (Adiguzel et al., 2023; Rudolph et al., 2023.; Wu, 2023) and the need for ethical and critical use of AI technologies in the classroom (Halaweh, 2023; Kasneci et al., 2023; Wu, 2023). We offer examples of how we have incorporated this policy and talked about this technology in our classes, facilitated critical discussion about the technology with our students, and guided them in applying AI tools ethically and transparently in their writing.

This chapter ends with an embedded video that presents media from a series of brief faculty interviews. Their perspectives on the integration of AI writing tools into the classroom are highlighted through short clips.