Statement on Generative AI (GenAI) and the Writing Process

The Center for Excellence in Writing has been closely monitoring research and conversation related to the use of new GenAI platforms such as ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, as well as developments in more familiar platforms such as Grammarly and Google Translate.   

While both the technology and the response of institutions to these new writing tools are transforming rapidly, the Center for Excellence in Writing would like to share its current stance and practices related to GenAI and academic writing. 

CEW consultants are prepared to have a conversation with you about the use of GenAI in the writing process. Our goal, in alignment with the values of UB as an educational institution, is that any use of GenAI in the writing process is ethical and promotes learning and development.  In our individual writing consultations, we can help you in the following ways: 

• To interpret your professor’s policy on the use of GenAI tools to make sure you are not committing an act of academic dishonesty. 
• To guide you in citation practices for GenAi use. 
• To demonstrate uses of GenAi that are ethical and promote your development as a writer, especially in the prewriting and revision stages. 
• To develop prompt engineering skills to be a more effective user of GenAI tools. 
• To understand the limitations and shortcomings of GenAI, especially the potentials for misinformation and inaccuracy. 
• To follow up on GenAI-assisted brainstorming by turning to vetted and peer reviewed research. 
• To demonstrate uses of GenAI as a learning tool. 

Please note our writing consultants are also students (undergraduate and graduate), and while they are receiving training on GenAI and Writing, they cannot be viewed as definitive experts. You should defer to your instructor related to your use of GenAI. 

The impact of GenAI on research, work, and learning cannot be ignored. The CEW is committed to engaging in this important conversation and keeping abreast of emerging research. We choose to strive toward the most positive outcome of these technological advances by posing this question:  What tasks or aspects of the writing process can GenAI ethically and effectively offload for us, and what capacities will we be able to develop with that extra time and cognitive space? We hope that, ultimately, AI technology will allow us to elevate our rhetorical skill and general powers of discernment as well as create a sharper sense of our own unique voices and perspectives.  Let’s talk, explore and reflect upon our evolving literacy landscape.