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Current conversations about student use of A.I. in higher education are fraught. Undoubtedly, many–not all–students are using A.I. in various ways and for different purposes. While the caveat of “not all” is important to remember–in my own FWSes, I have several students who refuse to use A.I. for moral and ethical reasons–those are not the students that are most distressing to writing teachers.
In my FWS on “A.I. and Writing,” students and I have been exploring “the line.” That is, what is acceptable and unacceptable A.I. use in the context of a writing course. Almost all students in the class tend to agree that ideas and thinking work must come from the writer. There is less agreement, however, regarding the details. Is it OK to use A.I. to outline? To edit? To revise a paragraph? To summarize a difficult source? When does A.I. use become inappropriate? Result in a loss of learning and thinking? Or even plagiarism or cheating?
In my class, students are exploring these questions explicitly through class readings, experiments with A.I., and reflections on their experiences. Elsewhere, though, in other courses and writing contexts, students are left to figure out these boundaries without guidance and support. In such cases, students may find using A.I. to get things done to become more pressing than their interrogation of what is or is not appropriate.
I do not believe that every course needs to focus on A.I. to support students’ understandings of appropriate boundaries. However, there is a lot we can do as teachers that might help students think more critically about their A.I. use and that discourages over-reliance on these tools. In the below handout and guide, I offer essential pedagogical values and strategies that deter A.I. use in writing. The good news is that many of these approaches are simply good pedagogy. Simply put, most of the suggestions are not things I have changed in response to A.I, but approaches to teaching writing that support students’ engagement with the writing process and their growth as writers–and these things also happen to deter over-reliance on A.I.
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AI & Assessment in First Year Writing
Kate Navickas, November 2025 | Link to Handout
The following are strategies that I use in my first-year writing seminars to support students’ learning and writing throughout the writing process in ways that discourage over-reliance on AI. The aim is to encourage students to develop critical AI literacies, which include self-awareness of ethical boundaries and friction with AI-use (e.g., cri ical analysis of all AI output). Students need opportunities to discuss the ways in which AI platforms are not neutral tools but cultural agents that are informed by b ased datasets and that perpetuate homogenized writing, language, and ideas.
Building Relationships with Students
- Believe that most students want to learn!
- Survey students, early in the semester, about their background with language and writing as well as their relationship with AI (e.g., how often do they use it?).
- Create explicit assessment measures that value the writing process over excellent writing as a final product.
- Assure students (and mean it!) that their writing and voice matters–including any “errors” in grammar, formatting, syntax, vocabulary, etc. Assessment measures should reflect this pedagogical commitment to diverse writing.
Assignment & Curriculum Design
- Break down formal assignments into required homework and classroom activities to provide teachers with a better idea of their individual writing and to help students to develop a stronger writing process.
- Students are less likely to over-rely on AI when they have already completed some of the smaller tasks of a larger assignment, and slowing down draft-building fosters trusting relationships by helping students to see the value in the homework and class activities.
Assessment Practices that Encourage Real Writing & Build Relationships
- Using a labor-based grading contract in which…
- Homework and Drafts are either complete/incomplete (feedback is geared towards ideas and writing development, but the grade is about completion)
- Final papers are graded based on improvement from the draft and meeting writing-based learning objectives
- Grades and feedback emphasize key learning objectives explicitly taught in class (e.g., how to use evidence, introduction writing moves, developing a claim and focused essay) and not on perfect error-free writing. If grammar, syntax and sentence structure are not a part of explicit class instruction, such issues should not affect grades.
- These practices encourage students to feel comfortable submitting authentic writing; grades that emphasize process over product create a safer environment for risk-taking and discourage over-reliance on AI.
Student Self-Reflections Support Accountability
- The day papers are due, during the first or last 10-minutes of class, students pull up their submissions on Canvas and use a comment to write about one specific thing they are proud of in their writing and one thing they are still struggling with.
- When students regularly reflect on their writing and revision process they are more accountable to themselves and teachers while also developing the ability to talk about writing and the way writing works.
Explicit Conversations about AI & Writing
- Ask students about how they use AI and how they feel about it.
- Create a classroom activity in which students ask AI to write something geared towards your content and class. Read through examples of what AI produces and discuss: What works well? What is less successful and why? What is the cost of using AI in this way? The goal is to create an awareness of AI’s weaknesses and to use the output to talk about writing expectations for the assignment.
- Require an “AI Acknowledgements” statement at the end of any writing assignment that includes 2-3 sentences explaining exactly how they used AI and where in the paper.
- Co-develop an AI course policy as a part of your explicit conversations about what counts as ethical, where the boundary of acceptable use should be, and what might hurt their learning in your course
Use this QR code to locate a google drive folder that includes:
- This handout
- Two FWS syllabi with grading contracts
- My AI policy
- AI & Writing: Working Bibliography
