
by Jeanne Lambert
In this article Professor Jeanne Lambert discusses the complexities of teaching writing in the age of Generative AI based on her experience as Associate Teaching Professor and Certificate in TESOL Coordinator at The New School in New York City.
Two recent encounters with my students about generative AI (artificial intelligence that can create new content based on existing input) brought up many issues that writing instructors need to urgently address.
The first student, having used ChatGPT to help with essay writing, was surprised when I cautioned her that ChatGPT in its current form may provide wrong information or even phantom sources.
A second, more skeptical student, shared that she finds ChatGPT “inefficient” because she has to rework much of the generated text. She also worries about potential “bias” in the “language models” used in generative AI.
For many digital natives, accustomed to pulling from all kinds of internet sources in seconds, ChatGPT is simply a handy new tool. They may not fully understand why using AI in their writing can be problematic. Like the student in my first example, they have plenty of access to AI tools but less awareness of their potential limitations. However, my skeptical student majors in design and technology (familiarly known on campus as DT) and is thus more aware of how AI tools are developed and how they operate.
How can our writing classrooms address this disparity in knowledge of AI tools?
We can put digital literacy front and centre. The American Library Association states that digital literacy “…requires skills in locating and using information and in critical thinking. Beyond that, however, digital literacy involves knowing digital tools and using them in communicative, collaborative ways through social engagement”. Given this definition, writing classrooms are ideal for promoting digital literacy.
I’m not suggesting we transform our classrooms into technology-based labs. On the contrary, what we can do is use the strength of what our courses currently offer to examine the technological transformation we are experiencing. We can apply many of the skills we already practice —critical thinking, locating and evaluating sources, understanding writing genres, etc.— to examine AI writing tools, and AI and society more generally. For the critical thinking dimension of digital literacy, we can focus more on these issues through topics and writing assignments. In the recent past, I have included more focus on technology and society in my writing classes and have observed increased engagement.
With more understanding of AI, we can guide our students as to when writing may be helped by collaboration with AI and when to caution them about using tools that may produce poor writing.

Some examples of engaging topics and assignments are:
- Argumentative essays on AI-related topics, such as self-driving cars, facial recognition, autonomous weapons, and algorithmic bias.
- Narrative essays that analyze and evaluate social media use and data privacy.
- Comparison-and-contrast essays that look at how governments around the world have addressed data privacy.
- Exploratory essays that evaluate samples generated by ChatGPT or other generative AI tools.
These assignments engage students in the world around them and allow educators to prioritize the analysis of AI within a familiar curricular context. We can continue to have students practice writing genres we already teach but shift our topic focus to increase digital literacy.
What about the “knowing digital tools and using them in communicative, collaborative ways” part of the ALA definition?
Of course we can’t advise our students about the use of AI writing tools if we aren’t familiar with them. We can learn the main ways AI tools function to guide our students. Just as we carefully vet secondary sources, we need to vet AI writing tools, examining claims made by their producers. To do this, there are free or low-cost online resources for learning about AI. One example is a Coursera course I took called “AI for Everyone,” taught by the well-known computer scientist, Andrew Ng.
We will need support from our institutions, as well, to teach us about AI tools and to face related academic issues. Our programs, departments and colleges should offer robust faculty development for this. At The New School, an institution founded by John Dewey and others who wanted the university to address the big problems of the 20th century, a diverse range of AI-related faculty development is ongoing—everything from workshops on how ChatGPT works to talks on AI and academic integrity, and AI and data privacy.
With more understanding of AI, we can guide our students as to when writing may be helped by collaboration with AI and when to caution them about using tools that may produce poor writing. We also need to raise awareness with students about how AI may reduce the opportunity to enrich their education through the practice of writing skills.
Learning to write is one of the most enriching aspects of any education. Here is a brief list of some of the benefits of learning to write:
- focusing attention on important topics
- increasing analytical skills
- using one’s creativity
- forming a point of view
- organizing information
- considering an audience (and often those with opposing views, which can widen our perspective)
We don’t want students to sidestep these critical learning processes. It’s important to make sure students receive the enriching benefits of learning to write well. We can do this by increasing students’ digital literacy within a dynamic writing curriculum by emphasizing technology-related topics and assignments and using AI tools ourselves, so we know how to guide our students regarding their use.
If you want to learn more about how Generative AI is changing the way we teach and learn, you’ll like these articles:
“Everybody’s talking about Gen AI, but what are English teachers saying?”
https://bit.ly/EverybodytalkingaboutAI
“6 tips for using generative AI tools in the ELT classroom”
“Enhancing learners’ critical thinking skills with AI-assisted technology”
https://bit.ly/criticalthinkingskillswithAI
“Teachers Talk Tech #1: Can we trust AI?”

Jeanne Lambert is Certificate in TESOL Coordinator and Associate Teaching Professor at The New School in New York City, where she teaches academic writing and ESL Practicum. She previously taught in Columbia University’s American Language Program and in college transition programs at The City University of New York (CUNY). She is the series editor and an author of the ESL writing series Final Draft, published by Cambridge University Press. You can watch her recent keynote address at the 2023 New Jersey ESL Summit called “Creating a Dynamic Writing Classroom in the Age of AI”.