ATWP’s Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) tool guidelines (Fall 2023)

Writers have long made use of and had their work shaped by available technologies. (For example, what we think of as writing in 2023 has been influenced by the development of the printing press, the typewriter, the ballpoint pen, and word processing programs with spell checking and copy-paste capabilities.) Artificial intelligence tools that rely on large language models – including but not limited to ChatGPT and Grammarly – are yet another technology many writers will learn to use effectively.

In the context of Academic and Technical Writing Program classes, there are some tasks connected to assignments for which it might be appropriate to use an artificial intelligence tool. (There’s not a meaningful difference between asking ChatGPT to suggest possible paper topics, generating topic ideas through conversation with a friend, or getting ideas by skimming news headlines. You would still need to choose a topic and then do the work.) However, in some instances, using an artificial intelligence tool would keep a student from benefiting from the purpose of the assignment. (If you’re supposed to be practicing your reading and analytical skills by summarizing a complex article, you won’t learn much by having ChatGPT generate a summary for you.) And in some cases, using an artificial intelligence tool would contravene the principles of academic integrity. (Handing in a paragraph generated by ChatGPT as an example of your writing is a form of plagiarism and thus would violate UVic’s Academic Integrity Policy.)

Therefore, you should not use any artificial intelligence tools when working on assignments for this class unless your instructor has explicitly authorized their use. In some cases, that “authorization” will be specified in assignment instructions. In some cases, you will get guidance in class or in an announcement in the Brightspace course site. If you’re ever unsure of whether it’s appropriate to use an artificial intelligence tool in an ATWP class to complete an assignment, ask your instructor.

In all cases, you are expected to make explicit if you have made use of an artificial intelligence tool to generate content just as you would cite any other source of ideas and language. The UVic Libraries website offers information regarding the Scholarly use of A.I. Tools, including guidelines for how to cite content created by artificial intelligence tools.