Writing with GenAI

GenAI in the writing process

Following a writing process helps you to produce written work efficiently and meet the requirements of the task. GenAI can support the writing process in many different ways. However, if you choose to use GenAI during some or all of the stages of your writing, you need to be careful that it doesn’t do the work for you. The activities and thought processes involved in each stage of writing help you to learn and develop your writing skills. If you let GenAI do this for you then you may struggle to effectively express your own ideas in the future. It’s also important to keep in mind that GenAI can make mistakes and produce poor writing.

If you use GenAI in your writing process for assessment without authorisation or disclosure, you are in breach of University of Melbourne academic integrity standards by misrepresenting your own capabilities and gaining an unfair academic advantage.

Note: Before you use GenAI for assessment-related work you must check to ensure that your Subject Coordinator has not prohibited that use. To ensure safe and responsible use, see GenAI at Melbourne resource. To get the most out of GenAI, review Using GenAI effectively resource.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming improves your memory, creativity, and ability to make connections.

When you brainstorm, you generate, evaluate, and connect ideas as they relate to your assessment. You identify where and what kind of evidence you need and think creatively about a topic. You might write lists or create a mind map

Instead of having GenAI just list ideas for you (which is the point of brainstorming), use it to help you generate your own ideas. Here are some ways to use the tool for brainstorming, plus example prompts:

• Suggesting prompts or questions for thinking about the topic
  • Prompt: “Come up with five questions that would help a university student explore [topic].”

• Generating alternative perspectives about the topic
  • Prompt: “Describe the questions an artist, scientist, historian, and environmental activist would ask about [topic].”

• Exploring similar topics
  • Prompt: “What is this [topic] similar to? What can be learned from other fields or situations?”

Outlining

Outlining improves your ability to identify key ideas, organise information, and structure a logical argument.

As you outline your response to the assessment, you organise your ideas into clear and logical structures, addressing the topic and audience. You might use bullet points or a table to represent your argument and show where and how your evidence fits in.

If you use GenAI to produce an outline for you, you will miss out on crucial critical thinking skill development. Instead, here are some ways GenAI can help while outlining, plus example prompts:

• Suggesting general templates for a written assessment
  • Prompt: “Provide three templates for a university [format of written assessment].”
• Suggesting ways to logically order information
  • Prompt: “What are four different ways I can logically order information or ideas in a [format of written assessment].”
• Identifying parts of an argument
  • Prompt: “What are the parts of an argument in a [format of written assessment].”

Editing

Editing improves your ability to judge the quality of your work  so you can critique and refine your ideas and expression.

When you edit, you evaluate and critique your draft for clarity, coherence, logical flow, and alignment with the assessment requirements. You review with the goal of improving the content and expression. Editing often happens in cycles in which you revisit earlier stages, such as outlining and drafting, before commencing another round of edits.

Grammarly and Microsoft Word can identify errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar, but you need to be careful that they do not rewrite or rephrase your writing. Here are some ways GenAI can help while editing, plus example prompts:

• Explaining the principles of good editing
  • “What are the principles of good editing and how can I apply them to a piece of academic writing? Provide examples for each principle.”
• Providing examples of common writing issues along with solutions
  • “Provide examples of common issues with academic writing along with strategies to address them.”

We do not recommend uploading your own work to GenAI tools. Your writing is your intellectual property (IP) and GenAI may use it without your permission.  However, if you do upload your own writing, here are two ways to use GenAI to help you edit your work, plus example prompts:

• Identifying possible repetition or redundancy
  • “Suggest strategies to reduce the repetition or redundancy in the following paragraph. Do not rewrite the text.”
• Providing suggestions on clarity and concision
  • “Suggest strategies to improve the clarity and concision of the following paragraph. Do not rewrite the text.”

Note: GenAI will sometimes rewrite your work even when explicitly asked not to.

Feedback

Feedback improves your ability to see others’ perspectives while interpreting, evaluating and applying them to your writing.

When you seek out or receive feedback, you need to interpret and evaluate it before applying it to your writing. Feedback is valuable because it shows you how readers respond to your writing. It can come from tutors’ comments on previous assessments, University staff (like Academic Skills), or even other students. You decide what is useful and how to incorporate it into your writing.

If you upload your entire document, GenAI tools can use your writing as training data. You may lose control of your ideas and intellectual property. A better and safer approach is to upload only a paragraph or short sample of text. The feedback you receive can then be applied to the rest of your writing. This way you protect your work and practice implementing feedback. Here are some ways GenAI can help you, plus example prompts:

• Provide feedback on structure and argument
  • Prompt: “Provide feedback on the logic of the structure and the strength of the argument of the following paragraph. Do not rewrite any of the text for me.”
• Provide feedback on transition and flow
  • Prompt: “Provide feedback on the transitions and flow of the following paragraph. Do not rewrite any of the text for me.”
• Suggest ways to improve expression
  • Prompt: “Provide feedback on the expression and overall tone of the following paragraph. Do not rewrite any text for me.”

Note: GenAI will sometimes rewrite your work even when explicitly asked not to.