6  Writing with AI

Author

Affiliation

Dr Randy Johnson

Hood College

Additional clarification

• You will be expected to use AI appropriately and efficiently in the workplace
• Your education should reflect that expectation

Principles for writing with AI

• AI-in-the-loop over human-in-the-loop
• Be transparent
• Be aware of your assumptions
• Avoid over-reliance

Use cases

In general, don’t copy/paste text directly from the LLM when writing. There are any helpful ways you can use AI in your writing, though. I also asked AI for feedback on my off-the-cuff prompts below (which are similar to prompts I typically use in my work) and will include those responses as well.

Literature search and review

• AI can provide quick, efficient access explore and review articles on any topic
• Prompt: I’m writing a paper on how an Agile framework could be applied in a scientific setting to benefit research projects. Please provide articles that would be helpful for my research.

Gemini feedback

The current prompt, “I’m writing a paper on how an Agile framework could be applied in a scientific setting to benefit research projects. Please provide articles that would be helpful for my research,” is very broad. It asks for a list of articles, which an LLM can provide, but the student will still have to sift through potentially irrelevant material.

Ask the student to provide more context about their paper’s focus and target application.

Original Prompt Part	Suggested Revision/Addition	Rationale
Topic: Agile framework in a scientific setting	Specific Field: “Identify three specific scientific fields (e.g., computational biology, particle physics, clinical trials) that could benefit most from an Agile framework.”	Focuses the research; Agile concepts might be more relevant to certain types of projects.
Output: Please provide articles…	Source Type: “Suggest a list of three to five highly-cited peer-reviewed articles or academic conference papers (not blog posts or general articles) from the last ten years…”	Encourages the use of credible, academic sources, which are essential for a student paper.
Output: …that would be helpful for my research.	Source Relevance: “…that directly discuss the intersection of project management methodologies (like Scrum or Kanban) and scientific research project execution, specifically within a university or national lab environment.”	Defines the kind of article and the setting needed, leading to a much more relevant result.

Summarization of your text

Having an LLM rewrite your work is effectively taking you out of the work. For summarization of your text, tell the LLM you want to make your text shorter and ask it for feedback on areas that could be more concise.

Gemini Suggestions

1. Assign a Role and Define the Goal (Critique)

The student should set the stage by telling the LLM its role is to critique the text based on academic standards.

Focus Area	Suggested Prompt Modification	Rationale
Role & Constraint	“Act as an experienced, but non-editing, academic mentor whose sole job is to diagnose structural flaws. The goal is to prepare the text for a 20% word count reduction.”	Sets a clear, specific, and non-editorial role. The word count goal is a clear objective.
Central Focus	“First, identify and clearly state the single central thesis of the entire document based only on the text I provided.”	Ensures the rest of the feedback is grounded in the paper’s core argument, which is vital for focused critique.

2. Require Specific Diagnostics (Where to Cut)

Instead of asking if there are redundancies, the student should require the LLM to locate and classify the precise weak points.

Student’s Question	Revised, Non-Editorial LLM Request	Focuses on…
Any ideas I’m spending too much time on?	Identify the two sentences that are most tangential to the central thesis you identified. Quote the sentences and explain why they should be cut for relevance.	Relevance & Focus
Any redundancies in the text?	Find three specific phrases or concepts that are repeated across different paragraphs. For each, quote the repeated phrasing and label the issue (e.g., ‘repeated concept,’ ‘fluffy transition’).	Redundancy & Economy
Ways I can make the text shorter?	Locate two examples of passive voice or nominalizations (turning verbs into nouns). Quote the exact sentences and explain how they contribute to unnecessary wordiness.	Academic Style & Conciseness

Example of the Strongest Prompt for Feedback Only

This version guides the student toward high-level, critical analysis that requires them to apply the fixes manually:

“I am preparing this research proposal for an academic review, and I need to cut the word count by at least 20%.

Task 1: Identify the Thesis Based only on the text I provided, what is the single, clearest central thesis or research question? State it in one concise sentence.

Task 2: Diagnose Structural Flaws (Quote and Critique) Acting as a critical mentor, provide feedback on the following areas. Do not rewrite any sentences or provide replacement text.

1. Redundancy: Quote the three most glaring instances (phrases, sentences, or concepts) where the text repeats an idea. For each, explain how that repetition could be consolidated.

2. Weak Focus: Quote the single paragraph that is the most distracting or least necessary for supporting the main thesis, and justify why it should be eliminated or drastically shortened.

3. Wordiness: Identify and quote two sentences that are structurally weak due to the use of passive voice or an overuse of unnecessary adjectives/adverbs, and explain why a more direct, subject-verb-object construction would be more concise.”

Summarization of someone else’s text

Summarization of articles is a good use of AI for the research stage, not so much for the writing stage.

Gemini suggestions

1. Require a Specific Analytical Framework

Instead of a generic “outline,” require the LLM to organize the information according to a structure that is useful for a literature review or research synthesis. This forces the student to connect the source to their own paper’s needs.

Original Request	Suggested Analytical Frameworks	Rationale
Bulleted outline containing the main ideas.	Move-Niche-Gap: “Analyze the text using the ‘Establish a Territory, Establish a Niche, Occupy the Niche’ (Move-Niche-Gap) framework. Use a bullet point for each Move, listing the evidence provided.”	This forces the student to see the paper’s argumentative strategy—how the author positions their work—a key skill for literature review.
	Argument/Evidence: “Create a two-column table. In the first column, list the three core claims (Arguments) of the author. In the second column, list the evidence (Data/Sources/Examples) used to support each claim.”	This teaches the student to distinguish between a claim and its support, which is vital for critical analysis.

2. Impose Structural Constraints to Limit Copying

To make the output useless for direct copying, require the LLM to use constraints that force brevity and structure over flowery prose.

Constraint Type	Suggested Prompt Modification	Rationale
Length/Brevity	“Every bullet point or table entry must be limited to a maximum of eight words.”	This forces a non-prose output that is impossible to copy-paste as a coherent sentence, making it an idea map instead of a summary.
Format	“Do not use complete sentences. Use keywords, technical terms, and phrases only.”	Prevents the generation of grammatically correct sentences that could be misused.

3. Require the Identification of Research Gaps/Limitations

A strong academic reader doesn’t just summarize; they critique. Asking the LLM to point out the paper’s flaws reinforces critical reading.

Suggested Analytical Task	Rationale
“List two explicit limitations that the author acknowledges, and one potential limitation that the author did not discuss.”	This makes the LLM a critical thinking tool, prompting the student to engage with the source on a deeper, analytical level.

Example of a Stronger, Synthesis-Focused Prompt

This revised prompt guides students toward analytical note-taking and teaches them to look beyond simple content summary:

“I have provided the full text of an academic article. I need help creating high-level, synthesis notes for my literature review.

1. Analyze the text and create a two-column table. The first column should list the author’s three primary conclusions or claims (maximum of 10 words each). The second column must list the type of evidence (e.g., case study, quantitative data, historical analysis) used to support that claim.

2. Using only keywords and professional jargon (no complete sentences), create a bulleted list that answers the following questions: What is the central research gap this paper was designed to fill? What are two potential areas for future research that the author suggests?”

This method turns the LLM into a tool for analytical breakdown, producing an output (a structured table of keywords and claims) that is useful for note-taking but useless for direct plagiarism.

Language and writing help

Ask the LLM for feedback instead of asking it to fix the document for you. Make the edits yourself without copying.

Gemini suggestions

That’s an excellent and crucial use case for LLMs, especially for non-native English speakers (NNES) and students aiming to improve their writing precision. The goal is to turn the LLM into a language diagnostics tutor that points out specific areas for improvement, requiring the student to do the actual revision and learning.

Here are suggestions for prompts that help students improve their academic language without generating copy-pasteable text. These focus on diagnosis, style coaching, and vocabulary precision.

Suggested Prompts for Language and Style Improvement

These prompts encourage the LLM to provide feedback that is analytical and educational, rather than just offering corrected text.

1. The Academic Style and Precision Coach 🎓

This prompt targets common weaknesses in academic writing: formality, flow, and conciseness.

“Act as an Academic Writing Editor for an advanced university course. My goal is to make the tone of the following paragraph more formal, professional, and concise.

Analyze the text and provide specific feedback in two parts:

1. Formality Check: List three informal phrases, contractions, or ambiguous words (e.g., ‘a lot of,’ ‘kind of,’ ‘get’). For each, suggest one or two more precise academic synonyms or replacements (e.g., ‘numerous,’ ‘somewhat,’ ‘obtain’).

2. Flow & Conciseness Diagnosis: Identify two sentences that suffer from choppy structure or run-on issues. Explain why the current structure impedes comprehension and state whether the sentences should be split or combined for better rhetorical flow. Do not rewrite the sentences.”

2. The NNES Clarity and Grammar Diagnostics Tool 📝

This is highly effective for NNES students because it focuses on identifying patterns of errors without correcting them immediately.

“I am a non-native English speaker writing this section on [Student’s topic]. My primary concern is clarity and grammatical accuracy.

Task: Error Pattern Identification

1. Identify the single most frequent grammatical error type in the text (e.g., incorrect article use, subject-verb disagreement, misplaced modifiers, or misused prepositions). Quote three examples of this error.

2. For a separate sentence, identify a phrase that is technically correct but unidiomatic or awkward for an academic context. Quote the phrase and describe, generally, how the meaning could be expressed more naturally (e.g., ‘Use a stronger verb’). Do not provide the correction.

3. Vocabulary Check: Suggest three high-level words I used that are slightly inaccurate for the specific academic context and briefly explain why a different word would be better. (Example: using ‘result’ when ‘consequence’ is more appropriate).”

3. The Vocabulary & Transition Strategist 💡

This prompt helps students expand their vocabulary and improve the logical connections between their ideas.

“I’m working on the transition between paragraph A and paragraph B.

Paragraph A focuses on: [Student provides 5-10 keywords]

Paragraph B focuses on: [Student provides 5-10 keywords]

1. Transition Diagnosis: Based on the shift in topic keywords, what is the logical relationship between these two paragraphs (e.g., concession, contrast, causality, elaboration)?

2. Suggest a list of five advanced transition words or phrases that logically signal this specific relationship (e.g., conversely, consequently, furthermore, while acknowledging…). Do not write the transition sentence.”

Why These Prompts Work for Learning

These prompts align with your goals by:

1. Focusing on Diagnosis: They force the LLM to name the error (e.g., “subject-verb disagreement,” “nominalization,” “informal phrase”) rather than just fixing it. This means the student learns the rule behind the correction.

2. Limiting Copy-Paste: By requesting lists of error types, specific synonyms, or rhetorical diagnoses, the output is not a coherent block of text that can be submitted. The student must manually look up, understand, and apply the suggested changes, which reinforces the learning process.

3. Building Academic Skills: They introduce students to advanced concepts like rhetorical flow, academic register (formality), and idiomatic language, which are essential for high-level academic writing.

Organization of thoughts

One exercise that can be helpful for idea generation is to write whatever comes to mind on your topic. Don’t worry about ordering things logically, just record your stream of thought. Asking an LLM for an outline of your thoughts can be helpful to provide the organizational framework, which you can then fill in with your own thoughts.

Gemini suggestions

Turning a stream-of-consciousness brain dump into a structured academic outline is one of the most productive ways for students to leverage AI without compromising intellectual ownership. The LLM is acting as a rapid organizational tool, leaving the actual writing and analysis to the student.

Here are a few suggestions for strong prompts that optimize this process:

Prompts for Organizing a Brain Dump

The key here is to give the LLM two things: the raw, unstructured text and a specific target format for the academic work.

1. The Standard Academic Outline Generator

This prompt is best for students working on a typical essay or research paper that requires a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.

“I have provided an unstructured block of text representing my initial thoughts, arguments, and notes on my topic.

Task: Analyze this raw text and extract all distinct ideas and claims. Organize these into a formal, hierarchical outline suitable for a 10-page research paper.

Your output must use this structure:

• I. Introduction: (Include a single, synthesized Thesis Statement)

• II. Context/Background: (List 3-4 key concepts from the text that need defining)

• III. Main Body Themes: (Create 3 distinct, balanced sections based on the major arguments you identified)

• IV. Conclusion: (List 2-3 implications mentioned in the text)

Do not use complete sentences in the outline; use keywords and short phrases to summarize the content under each heading.”

2. The Argumentative Structure Refiner

This prompt is great for identifying the core thesis and supporting evidence, which is necessary for a strong argument-driven paper.

“Analyze the block of text I provided. My primary goal for this paper is to build a strong, evidence-based argument.

Task 1: Identify the Core: Extract and refine the single, most dominant argument or research question present in my notes. State it clearly.

Task 2: Build the Supporting Framework: Create a three-part outline (Argument 1, Argument 2, Argument 3). Under each argument, list 3-4 pieces of evidence, data, or source-ideas from the raw text that directly support it. If a piece of evidence can support multiple arguments, list it under each one.

The purpose is to map my arguments to my existing evidence.”

3. The Literature Review Organizer (for Synthesis)

If the student’s brain dump is based on reading several sources, this prompt helps them sort those ideas by common themes, which is essential for a literature review.

“My notes below are a mix of my own ideas and key findings from various articles I’ve read. I need to organize these into a structured literature review.

Task: Read the text and identify 3-4 overarching themes, categories, or schools of thought. Create a heading for each theme. Under each thematic heading, place the relevant concepts and ideas from my raw notes into a bulleted list.

For example:

• Theme A: [Identifying Key Concept]

  • Bullet point 1 (Idea from the raw text)

  • Bullet point 2 (Idea from the raw text)

The final outline must clearly show which ideas belong together conceptually.”

These prompts prevent the LLM from simply rewriting the student’s text and instead use it to model effective organizational and analytical thinking, leaving the students to execute the actual composition of the paper.