I agree, and I have always found myself writing some variation of your three go-to comments especially in a class like first year writing which requires them to do research and to use that research to support an argument. Now with AI, when I come across a big chunk of text in an essay where they are supposed to be supporting their claims with research with no citation at all, I also tend to make a comment like this: "You are making a lot of claims here that require some specific evidence, but you don't cite any. My best guess is this is for one of three reasons: perhaps you have done the research and what you are saying is more or less based on what several different sources said. Or perhaps you just are not citing the evidence you are quoting or paraphrasing in this paragraph. Or perhaps you borrowed a bit too much of the ideas and possibly words from AI. It's hard for me to say. But regardless of the cause, this is a problem."
Also, as my wife puts it, AI still cannot actually attend class and bein in our space. Yet.
I like this response, John! Where do you see specificity here, in relation to precision? Precision makes me think of saying exactly what one means, but specificity implies concrete details. I think both can be useful in writing generally, but especially as a pedagogical response to AI writing.
That's a good point. I'd probably say that specificity is a sub category of precision. But you're definitely right they're not synonymous. They've always been important to my teaching but they've become significantly more so now with AI writing tech.
This is excellent!! I think this approach is spot on. Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I totally agree that AI is reshaping how we (instructors, teachers, educators) think about what we are actually asking student writers to do in their writing, what is relevant now, and what we actually want writers to learn in the process of doing that writing. Great piece!
I agree, and I have always found myself writing some variation of your three go-to comments especially in a class like first year writing which requires them to do research and to use that research to support an argument. Now with AI, when I come across a big chunk of text in an essay where they are supposed to be supporting their claims with research with no citation at all, I also tend to make a comment like this: "You are making a lot of claims here that require some specific evidence, but you don't cite any. My best guess is this is for one of three reasons: perhaps you have done the research and what you are saying is more or less based on what several different sources said. Or perhaps you just are not citing the evidence you are quoting or paraphrasing in this paragraph. Or perhaps you borrowed a bit too much of the ideas and possibly words from AI. It's hard for me to say. But regardless of the cause, this is a problem."
Also, as my wife puts it, AI still cannot actually attend class and bein in our space. Yet.
That's a good comment and observation. I'm going to use a version of it when responding.
Love this. So well put
Thanks Katherine!
I like this response, John! Where do you see specificity here, in relation to precision? Precision makes me think of saying exactly what one means, but specificity implies concrete details. I think both can be useful in writing generally, but especially as a pedagogical response to AI writing.
That's a good point. I'd probably say that specificity is a sub category of precision. But you're definitely right they're not synonymous. They've always been important to my teaching but they've become significantly more so now with AI writing tech.
Thanks for the response! Here's another example of how AI is sharpening a point about teaching.
This is excellent!! I think this approach is spot on. Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I totally agree that AI is reshaping how we (instructors, teachers, educators) think about what we are actually asking student writers to do in their writing, what is relevant now, and what we actually want writers to learn in the process of doing that writing. Great piece!
Thanks Justin!