S12a AI Use as a Result of Normal Discourse

Presenters

Susannah Randall, English

Abstract

Concerns over students’ use of AI in writing assignments is rampant. Chronicle articles hail the end of the humanities, of critical thinking, of the ability to assign long-form, out-of-class writing with any sort of certainty that students are actually doing the work and thus engaging in the learning the assignment should produce. Yet, this recent attention to AI often glosses over the reasons why students might turn to AI. It characterizes them only as lazy and unethical, rather than more accurately positioning them as students who do not understand the academic expectations or goals of many of these writing assignments.

I approach the issue of AI¬ (specifically student use of Grammarly) by framing it through the concepts of “normal” and “abnormal” discourse (c.f. Bruffee; Trimbur). Normal discourse is best understood as the language and ideas that are generally accepted; abnormal discourse, then, are things that seem “off” or “weird.” In this presentation, I argue that students turn to AI, like Grammarly, to smooth over the “weird” ways they may describe things; in short, they use it to produce normal discourse, even when this production is at odds with assignment goals or their own writing style. While most instructors would describe their writing assignments as allowing room for creativity, most students view such responses with skepticism, focusing on the grade rather than genuine learning (Kohn). However, this leaves students without one of the most important factors to writing: voice.

Thus, in order to respond to the AI crisis, we must return our attention to helping students to understand the conventions of academic discourse, and to recognize that while AI can imitate normal discourse, it does not understand it. Further, it excludes marginalized individuals by removing their voice–exactly the opposite of what instructors want when they design critical thinking writing assignments.

Session Recording